Hermione Granger and the Pureblood Prince
by Quaffle and Snitch
Summary: A different perspective on the events in book 6: the story about a hidden affair between two students of the most fiercely opposing houses, so secret that even JKR didn't write about it... Can Draco and Hermione handle each other's and their own problems?
1. Set in motion

**AUTHOR'S NOTE **

**Dear reader, this is Quaffle and Snitch speaking. **

**Well, let's start off by saying that we've never written any fanfiction of any kind before. What we're trying to do here is have a little fun with these characters, have them do whatever we want and such, but we also want to try to make a fanfiction with some character development. Perhaps even some psychological depth. We have already thought up all of the story, we try to write the fanfic as a proper story: working towards a climax with growing tension and problems. Don't get us wrong, we're not taking it all THAT serious, not at all, but we're trying to do it right while we're at it. **

**Let's continue by saying that yes, there's two of us. We are writing this fanfiction together and we take it in turns to each write a chapter. I, Quaffle, have started off with chapter one, and my dear friend Snitch wrote chapter two. And so on... We may be writing it chapter by chapter, but like we just said, the plot was written in advance, which we did together. Therefore we basically already know how and when this story is going to end. We discuss the next chapter before it's written, and after, so that our chapters will add up to a coherent story.**

**Apart from the fact that Hermione and Draco would never end up together in the real story by J.K. Rowling, we've otherwise tried to make it fit within the actual Harry Potter series. This means that if you allow yourself to bend your mind a little, it could actually have happened this way in the real story (or their love may yet be revealed in book seven ;-) ). **

**Let me go on by saying that we do not own any of the characters we're using in this story, each and every one of them belongs to J.K. Rowling. It might also be nice to hereby thank her for indulging us in her wonderful stories and inspiring us to write fanfiction. All hail the queen of Potter! **

**And by the way, you will have to excuse us for the cheesy bits of our fanfiction, it's still fanfiction you know, we're not trying to create sincere literature here. Also, our first language is NOT English, so if we make any stupid mistakes it's either due to a typing error or our incompetence in the English language. **

**Let me finish by making one or two last comments:**

**-Read and review please, both positive and other comments are welcome, but please try to give us constructive criticism; don't just tell us it sucks, tell us WHY is sucks so we can take it into consideration.   
-Enjoy!**

******_Note from Quaffle:_ Here goes nothing! The first chapter. What I've tried to do is portray Hermione's and Draco's feelings for each other and how they deal with them. That's basically all, please be kind, it's my first effort!**

******  
Chapter one  
Set in motion **

It was a Saturday morning at Hogwarts school, and breakfast was lavish as always, including eggs, porridge, toast, bacon, and white beans in sauce. Whenever supplies ran out, the bowls and plates would magically refill themselves. In other words, there was plenty to eat, but today Hermione settled for just munching on the same piece of toast for fifteen minutes. She looked oddly spaced out. She was staring into nothingness in stead of flipping through the pages of a big fat book like she usually did.

Racing through her mind were thoughts about another student, fellow first year Draco Malfoy. From the very beginning she had known that he was almost the exact opposite of her. He embodied everything that she was not. Hermione was the responsible type. She always followed the rules, always did her homework, and always struggled to do the right thing. Malfoy on the other hand had already proven himself to be a renowned rule breaker. Whether or not he did is homework, Hermione didn't know, but he definitely never bothered to do the right thing. He didn't seem to care about anyone but himself. Judging by the way he always strode around the hallways with a self satisfied smirk on his face, he felt an enormous sense of superiority, and he sure didn't mind showing it. He often terrorised other students with snide remarks and liked to laugh heartily at other peoples troubles. And Hermione was never overlooked. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were sworn enemies, and since Hermione was Harry's friend, she was one of Draco's favourite targets.

Hermione took a sip of her pumpkin juice, trying to focus on something other than Draco. She looked at the big doors to the great hall, praying for her friends to come in and distract her, but it seemed they were sleeping in as usual. So she watched some of the teachers sitting at their table, eating breakfast. This proved to be very boring however, and she glanced once more over to the doors. 'Just my luck.' She thought grumpily, for none other than Draco Malfoy and his goons had just entered the great hall, and thoughts about him immediately resurfaced. They came popping at her from every direction; Draco's shiny blonde hair, Draco's prominent charisma, Draco's piercing eyes, they came to her and broke down her defences stone by stone.

And yet, Hermione's brain told her to disgust this boy. 'He's a Slytherin for gods sake.' She thought. 'We're like water and fire, he's nothing but a dim-witted, ignorant evil snake and I loathe his superior attitude…'

But however different they might have been, she just couldn't stop thinking about him. He intrigued her, his allure ever visible to her.

Suddenly she realised he and his friends, Crabbe and Goyle, were coming her way. She couldn't make herself avert her eyes, and when his met hers, he looked at her with a pitiful expression. "Mind where your looking, you worthless mudblood." He said as he walked by. "I'd hate for your filth to rub off on me."

But Hermione looked into those eyes, and felt something other than disgust coming from him. Her instincts told her that Draco Malfoy was not quite the boy he made out to be. Whenever she looked him in the eye, it was as though she could see someone different hiding in there; someone good, someone attractive.

Hermione's brain and heart completely contradicted each other. Even when he gave her every reason to burst with anger, she always felt a blush creeping up to her cheeks, and her heart would skip a beat. She wouldn't admit it, not even to herself, but secretly, she felt attracted to Draco, more so than she had ever felt attracted to anyone else.

Finally managing to block out the images of him, Hermione took another piece of toast from the breakfast table, got up, and headed for the library to get some homework done.

As Draco walked past Hermione, word came to him naturally. There were many things he could say to a filthy mudblood like Hermione Granger, and he simply said the first thing that came to mind. He ignored the butterfly feeling in his stomach as she looked at him. 'I'm just hungry.' He thought, knowing perfectly well that that had nothing to do with it. It was the blush on her cheeks that did it.

"Did you see the way she looked at me?" He said to Crabbe and Goyle. "Did you see that defying look on her face, as though she was worth as much as I am?" His goons laughed.

This was the way he always reacted when his vigorous belief in his superiority swayed. 'I'm a pureblood, I'm a Slytherin, if she had any sense she'd know to respect me.' He thought angrily.

He had travelled down this path of thought many times before, and knew he was only getting himself worked up. 'Why do I even care?' He thought. And he decided to stop caring. She wasn't worth even his thoughts.

Draco and his buddies sat down at their table and started breakfast. Crabbe and Goyle took much more food than they needed as usual.

"Look, she's leaving, going to the library to _study_ I'll bet." Crabbe said, putting emphasis on the word 'study' in a way that made it sound ridiculous.

'A regular know-it-all.' Draco thought. But she did know more than anybody else he'd ever met. He had to give her that. He remembered seeing her for the very first time, before the sorting ceremony. He remembered how he had thought she looked attractive, and how he had hoped they would both be sorted into Slytherin. But obviously that had not happened. Not only was she not sorted into Slytherin, she just had to be placed in Gryffindor, Slytherin's rivalling house.

It was when he had found out that on top of being a Gryffindor she was a mudblood as well, that he completely gave up on her. In stead of thinking of her with admiration, perhaps even longing, he had started thinking of her with aversion. Hatred.

'If only she hadn't been a Mudblood.' He thought. 'Maybe then she would have been sorted into Slytherin.' Though he knew that was impossible. She was a goodie two shoes. Far too uptight to be a Slytherin. 'But she could have learned. All she would have needed was to spend some time with me, and then she would have come around. She would have made a fine addition to Slytherin, with Crabbe and Goyle around all the time I wouldn't mind having some more brains added to the mix.'

He shoved a some eggs down his throat, followed by a strip of bacon.

'Filthy Gryffindor mudblood..' He thought. 'Just the thought of a noble pureblood like me with a mudblood like her. It's would be a disgrace, I would bring dishonour to my entire family.' All he could do was watch her from a distance, pretending to hate her. He even believed it himself. Everybody knew he loved taunting others, especially Hermione and her little friends. But the real reason he loved taunting hér was quite different from what everyone thought. Whenever he called her names, it was not his arrogance and pride that was surfacing, but his fascination and infatuation. He loved seeing the reactions he got from Hermione when she got mad at him. The way she would look at him, and the cute little sounds of anger that would escape her throat. 'No.' He thought as he found his mind once again lingering on Hermione's cute little ways. He was angry with himself, but took it out on his goons.

"Stop eating you dungheads." He said to Crabbe and Goyle. "It amazes me you haven't grown to the size of Hagrid yet." It was so easy…


	2. Red books and red cheeks

**_Note from Snitch:_ Quaffle's first chapter told us what happened in Draco's and Hermione's first year. Chapter two takes the story up five years later, so at the beginning of the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. Five years is a long time, how have feelings changed, or perhaps even developed?**

**  
Chapter two  
Red books and red cheeks**

Five years after this breakfast, Hermione found herself in an oddly similar situation. Toast in her hand, she was looking around the Great Hall, not feeling like focussing on the 'Advanced Potion making', which lay next to her pumpkin juice. As her eyes slid past the doors which provided entrance to the Great Hall, once more Draco and his followers entered. Draco's appearance had changed much in the past years. He was no longer a boy, though not yet a man either. Still his paleness and his blonde hair had remained, however, as had the look of superiority in his eyes and his attitude.

This time Hermione managed to look away after only a few seconds. Quickly she finished her toast, crumbling over her robes. She was much better at controlling her thoughts now. The thoughts about Draco remained in her, but she had put them deep inside herself. On moments like this, they would wriggle inside her in protest, making her slightly light-headed and weirdly tickling in her stomach, but they stayed where they were and would be feelings, not thoughts put into to words, that littered her mind. Hermione heard the voices of the Slytherin group pass behind her back, laughing and boasting, but no remark was made to her.

With a few large gulps she emptied her glass of pumpkin juice and stuffing her Potions book in her bag she left for the library. After walking trough the stone halls and passing a rather grumpy looking Madam Pince she settled herself at a table in a quiet corner of the library. Of course, all of the library was supposed to be quiet, but a few very energetic first years were looking for some hard-to-find book, noisily moving as first-years do when they passed the shelves. Hermione was not in the mood to correct them. Anyway, this was Madam Pince's territory, not that of a Gryffindor prefect.

Hermione took out her quill and parchment and put in some good work on her homework on antidotes and after an hour she could start on her essay for Defence against the Dark Arts. After having written more than a foot, she remembered wanting to write something about a certain jinx, but she had forgotten which… She searched her memory for a few minutes and then remembered having seen it in a book, a book in the Room of Requirement, when Harry had given DA lessons there last year. Maybe she could go and look it up there… Ah well, why not, Umbridge was far away from Hogwarts now so it would be completely safe to go there now. Tidily she rolled her parchment and put it in her bag with her quill and books.

Five minutes later, puffing and blowing, Hermione arrived at the wall behind which lay the Room of Requirement. She had been chased by Peeves down three corridors before she could shake him off. He had tried to hit her head with remains of breakfast, missing her head by inches with some eggs.

Slowly her breath regained its normal pace while she walked past the stone wall thinking very hard of the DA Room, eyes closed to increase her concentration. When she had past the approximate place of the door three times she opened her eyes and the wall revealed the opening into the DA room. Hermione entered. It had been a long time since she had been here. The pillows in the Room looked fluffy and comfortable as ever, books still lined the walls and even the whistle Harry had used to attract attention of the DA group lay casually on the ground. Hermione knew it had been thrown down, when the whole group was forced to run out of the Room of Requirement to avoid being caught by Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad. The group had been betrayed by that stupid friend of Cho Chang's, Marietta. Well, the friend surely regretted it now, Hermione thought with a smirk on her face. When Hermione saw Marietta on the Hogwarts Express this year, her face was still covered in giant, ugly bulbs which spelled 'sneak'. It was a nice piece of magic done by Hermione: all the members of DA had signed a piece of parchment and by that were affected by the magic which would show if someone would betray the secret group. Hermione had secretly enjoyed the perhaps rather cruel magic. All her goodie goodie homework doing en learning, sometimes she was just wasn't feeling like putting it to goodie goodie uses. She was always so busy with doing the right thing, working hard, really doing things perfect, that something deep in her sometimes was longing for not obeying rules and more, a dark temptation. The DA parchment was a chance to give in to the longing for once. Hermione looked for the parchment on the door of the room. It was no longer there; Umbridge probably had taken it.

Hermione searched the shelves of the room for the right book. It had a red cover, with a silver and a gold wand crossing, emitting stars and the title of the book… She found it, the red leather pressed in between a green book and a beautiful wooden dragon; the bookend._ Advanced jinxes and counter jinxes_ gleamed the golden letters. Hermione searched the index for the right jinx, but didn't see it. She leafed through the book and was surprised at the amount of interesting jinxes in the book. She could just take it with her to the common room, to so she could read all of it… Yes, she would do that, she could put it back tomorrow. Walking to the exit of the room Hermione read about the _Hairy Curtain-jinx_, which made the hair of the enemy grow long and wrap itself around all of the enemy's body, making him immobile and obstructing his sight. Hermione looked at the picture next to the text, all you could see was a human silhouette, totally covered in hairy knots, looking as though… – BUMP!

Hermione had just come through the door when she bumped into a familiar figure, who had obviously just arrived and walked towards the door. He was very pale and had light blond hair…

"Gee, can't I go anywhere without being spared of mud all over me!" Draco exclaimed.

"Apparently not, because it keeps coming out of you mouth!" Hermione snapped at him, heat once again reddening her cheeks.

"Phaw! At least I haven't got mud running through my veins!"

"Saying you have veins implicates you think you've got a heart, which I doubt!"

"Don't you think you can… -" Draco started, looking for the right words to insult her.

"You –" both yelled at the same time, searching for the worst term of abuse they could think of. Breathing heavily they looked each other in the eyes in extreme anger. Looking into his eyes made Hermione breath even faster. The snapping had been easy, words she could handle. But the wriggling deep inside her started to make her shaky and began to turn the safe, angry look in her eyes into fear. He would see it! Her eyes would now betray her secret! It would be unbearable, the shame of this, he would laugh so hard at her. He would tell everyone, not only worsening the trouble with the Slytherins but also casting her out of Gryffindor, they would hate her for it. But then… she saw the same moment in his eyes, the anger going away, being replaced with something else… and this released the wriggling feelings inside her, handing them the key to open their carefully built cage and burst out of it.

At the same moment, Draco and Hermione went for each other, silencing the noise of their breath as they pressed their lips upon those of the other. For a moment of heat, five years of longing escaped their mouths and melted them together.

Then Hermione let go, and looked at Draco, almost terrified. She snatched the red book she had dropped of the ground and ran off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, totally confused and in shock with herself…


	3. Jumbled together

**_Note from Quaffle: _My congratulations to you, Snitch, for managing to bring our couple together in a kiss against all odds. I wasn't sure it could happen, but it did! Well okay, maybe I did know, we didn't write the whole plot in advance for nothing, but it's still nice to actually see it happen!  
So I guess it's my turn to see what I can do for our dear friends. No more chatter, let's get on with it.**

**  
Chapter three  
Jumbled together**

Hermione paced up and down the dormitory that afternoon, her bushy hair flying round her shoulder every time she turned abruptly.

Had she been right all along? All those times she had thought she saw something in his eyes, had she been right?

'I kissed Draco Malfoy…' Hermione thought. 'Draco Malfoy… this is crazy… what was I thinking to just go off and kiss Draco Malfoy?' Her heart was beating fast, and her mind was racing. 'Dear god I hope he doesn't tell anyone… if this is just one of those sleazy jokes of his…. if he tells anyone… oh I'll kill that bastard… I can hear them all laughing now, it'll haunt me for the rest of my life… or at least until I leave school…'

'Hey Hermione!' She imagined Draco calling. 'Did you_ really_ think I'd ever fall in _love _with you? What are you _nuts_?"'

"No!" She groaned. She pushed her palms hard against the sides of her head, as though preventing it from blowing up. 'No, he kissed me, it's not a joke, it can't be, he would never kiss a 'mudblood' just for the sake of a joke…'

But even if it hadn't been a joke, what did it matter. It was all a mistake anyway. Who cared about what the Slytherins would say, the problem would be the Gryffindors. What would her friends say?

Hermione paced and paced, analysing all the consequences it would have if anyone were to find out. Finally she howled in desperation and let herself fall on her bed. 'I can't do this…' She thought. 'It happened this one time, but I won't let it happen again… it's just impossible.'

And that was that. The conclusion to her analysis was that it would be unwise for her to pursue this course of action any further. Simple enough.

How she ended up in that same corridor in front of the room of requirement the next morning, she didn't know. But there she was, pacing up and down again. She never meant to go there, but her feet just seemed to carry her, fuelled by her feelings that had been so prominent ever since that kiss the day before. But now that she was here, her brain started to kick in again. 'What am I doing.' She thought. 'And what am I expecting to happen now?'

Then she heard footsteps coming from around the corner. They came closer and closer, and Hermione felt herself panic. 'Stay put, no, run! No, just calm down, just….' the footsteps came around the corner, along with its maker. It was a fourth year Hufflepuff, just passing by. Hermione's eyes were wide in shock and relief. 'I can't stand here all day freaking out! Never mind all this…' She thought, angry with herself for allowing her feelings take over. She quickly walked away. She was just about to round the corner when she heard her name coming from behind. 'Her… Hermione!' She recognised it immediately as Draco's voice, though she had never heard it so… hesitant.

Indeed he was hesitating. Never before had he hesitated like he did now. He was fighting a battle between the feelings he had had for so long, that had become ever stronger, and his mental restraint. He had worked so hard all these years to honour his morals and values; these feelings were against everything he stood for. Was she worth it? In addition to his moral issues, he knew that if he crossed this line, there would be trouble. He would have to keep it a secret from his family and friends, but was he up to it?

Hermione turned around. There stood Draco, looking as though he was trying to decide whether or not to jump off a bridge. 'He's back.' She thought, her heart picking up pace. 'He's here.'

Draco looked at her for a moment, but then quickly cast his eyes down. They very slowly walked towards each other. They stopped when there was about three feet of space left between them. Hermione felt her face grow hot as she looked for something to say, but Draco was first to speak "Hermione…" He said softly, nervously. "I was hoping to find you here…"

The words hung there in mid air during the short silence that followed, reverberating trough Hermione's brain. 'He was hoping to find me here… he wanted to see me… that means he either wants to tell me he's sorry about what happened yesterday, or that he's not… if he's sorry about what happened, then surely he wouldn't come tell me, he'd just ignore me from now on, that's the kind of thing he would do. So then he _isn't_ sorry about what happened yesterday… so then… he won't mind if I…'

She swiftly moved forward, stopping only two inches short of his face. She hesitated for one more second, and then she gently brushed her lips against his. She heard his breath quiver. Then he responded by lightly moving his lips against hers.

And as quickly as it had started, it was over. Draco had moved away, taking a step back. Hermione instantly felt panic rise. She wanted to run again, but Draco's hands suddenly gripping her upper arms kept her rooted to the spot. "No, it's okay!" He said quickly, apparently having noticed Hermione's panic. He looked warily around him to make sure no one was around, then looked back at her and said in a low voice: "Just, not here…"

His hands were still on her arms as they looked at each other, both trying to think of a place to go. Then they both looked to the side at the wall they were standing next to. 'The room of requirement.'

They had entered a nearly empty room. It was about the size of a small bedroom, and all that was in there was a couple of posters with happy couples on them, and on a shelf lay a book titled: 'When witches and wizards fall in love; what to do and how best to do it.'

Ignoring the scenery, they got straight to the point. Hermione once again took the initiative and kissed Draco full on the lips. He wrapped his arms around her lower back and pulled her a little closer. Their mouths opened slightly to allow their tongues to meet. Hermione felt like she was on fire. The heat came from deep in her belly and rose up to her ears. The moment their tongues touched, Hermione moaned softly. This only spurred Draco to increase the pressure. His hands were rubbing Hermione´s back. Hermione moaned again and moved her own hands up into Draco´s hair. It felt soft and smooth, just like she had allowed herself to imagine once. She moved one hand to his cheek, feeling the heat coming from it. Draco nibbled on her lower lip for a moment, before kissing her passionately on the lips again.

None of Hermione´s doubt could find their way to the surface during their escapade in the room of requirement that morning, and all she felt was years worth of longing pouring out. It felt like all her life so far had revolved around this moment.

When they finally broke apart, they looked at each other, and for the first time in Hermione's life, Draco smiled at her. She smiled back, a fragile but sincere smile. 'Where will this take us?' She thought, and lay her head on his shoulder, his arms still around her. She breathed in his scent, memorising it. They were both still unsure, and a bit overwhelmed, but before allowing herself to start worrying about everything again, Hermione wanted to relished this moment for a little while longer.

When they left the room of requirement, they both felt smiles creeping up their faces. They gave each other one more glance, and went separate ways. Hermione's mind felt foggy as though all her thoughts had been shaken en stirred so that they were now mixed together into one big jumble. She couldn't isolate a single thought, good or bad, but there was one word that kept floating clearly audible trough her head, bouncing off the walls. 'Wow.'


	4. Meeting Twins

**_Note from Snitch: _W****ell Quaffle, it seems you have done quite a lot for our couple :-) . I do think they appreciated it. Let's see how our two lovers handle what you have done to them… :-P  
Thanks for your sweet reviews readers, by the way.**

** Chaper 4  
Meeting twins**

The fog remained in Hermione's head for the rest of the day, sometimes briefly clearing up in places, giving away a glimpse of what had happened that morning, making Hermione feel as if she were taking in several mugs of Butterbeer at a time, filling her with warmth. The day slid past in haze of dimmed happiness.

When the fires in Hogwarts were lit and darkness crept up on the Gryffindor tower, Hermione wished Harry and Ron goodnight and went to bed early. The blankets of her four-poster lying over her finally lifted the fog and freed the way for dreams that Hermione had long kept away…

The next morning Hermione woke early and dressed quickly, throwing her robes over her head and impatiently prodding her brush with her wand, making the enchanted thing haste through her brown curls quicker and quicker, until in it's eagerness it had totally tied itself in the bushy hair. Silently swearing at the brush, not wanting to wake the others, she roughly ripped the knots loose. After that she hurried down the winding stairs, out of the portrait hole and down the halls. As Hermione neared the Room of Requirement she started walking slower. Disappointment filled her, when she rounded the last corner and saw the corridor before her empty. She realised Draco would of course not be there. Hermione herself might hurry out of the common room before breakfast, people expecting her wanting to check some fact or do some last minute homework revising, Hermione chuckled at the thought of the image she had created for herself. But for Draco things were different, he always moved in groups, with at least his two dumbest followers next to him. Hermione wondered why Draco had been alone that day, that day of their first kiss. Why had he gone to the Room? She heard Harry's voice in her head: "He's up to something!" Hermione hadn't paid much attention to it then, thinking Draco was up to something most of the time and that those _somethings _hardly ever involved anything more serious than finding the best way to humiliate others. But maybe this time things were different. Now Draco's father Lucius was locked up, maybe a more serious role was expected of him by his family, asking more of him than his usual fun making. Or was it expected by… no, she should not think of that. Things were quite difficult enough as they were. Of course Draco could walk alone sometimes, for god's sake, everyone walked alone sometimes! Perhaps he was just passing. And it was about time she passed too.

Hermione returned to the common room and settled herself in a chair with her Defence against the Dark Arts essay in front of her, rereading and correcting it until she was greeted by Harry and Ron.

Two hours later they found themselves looking into the small happy face of Professor Flitwick. He looked particularly enthusiastic, which made Ron look slightly scared thinking of what difficult magic they would have to learn to make Flitwick look like that. The Professor correctly guessed Ron's feelings and smiled to him.

"Yes, mister Weasley, I have some quite exciting magic for you and your fellow classmates today!" he beamed. "Students, students! Silence please! Would you wish for me to help you with a Silencing Charm, miss Brown?". Lavender was making suppressed giggling noises, looking rather red, having just turned her head away from Ron quickly when Professor Flitwick addressed her. Ron, of course, had noticed nothing of the latter and only made an irritated noise when Lavender managed a "No, sir" without giggling too much.

"All right," smiled Flitwick. "Today we will make our first attempt at Doubling Charms!" he continued. "_Gemino!_" he exclaimed while he made a circle in the air with his wand, following it with a jab in the middle of the circle. A second Professor Flitwick appeared next to him, exactly mirroring his movements. "This magical twin of mine is not solid," he moved his hand right through the body of his mirror image, as did the image with him, "but he will cause great confusion for your duelling partner!". For another moment, Flitwick looked at his twin with amusement and then made him disappear with a flick of his wand.

"Wow! Now _that'_s what I call a handy charm," Ron said looking at Flitwick in admiration. The word _wow _caused a small jolt in Hermione's stomach and suddenly she felt very aware of Draco sitting behind her, at the right end of the classroom. Being only such a small distance away from each other and thinking of the secret they shared, made Hermione's heart beat faster and put a small smile on her face which made her feel kind of mischievous.

"Yes, I would say so, mister Weasley. Now let's start practicing, I can see miss Granger is eager to begin!". Hermione felt caught and quickly regained a normal look and nodded at Flitwick. He started repeating the charm.

"Okay, take your wands. Draw a nice circle in front of you," he slowly followed his own directions and looked at the students copying him, "and now pierce it in the middle! Yes, that's it! Now say after me: _Gemino"_. "Gemino," echoed the class, willingly.

After an hour, most people produced images which look transparent like Nearly Headless Nick, with a pale version of the black of the robes they all wore. Hermione's already showed the deep brown of her hair and if you looked closely, you could see freckles upon her nose. It was a bizarre experience to look at yourself like that, but it was very funny too.

"Handy if you want to take a good look at a new outfit!" laughed Parvati, looking at Hermione, who was examining details of her new twin. Hermione laughed with her and acted as though she was checking whether her make-up was still in place. Hermione herself wasn't wearing any, but she winked at one of the girls of her dormitory who went through a lot of trouble with putting on all kinds of stuff on her face in the morning.

Hermione went smiling and laughing through the rest of the lessons, lunch and dinner, looking forward to the evening. During lunch she had slipped away and put a note on the shelf in the Room of Requirement, stating the time on which she would be there again: eight o'clock.

It now was eight o'clock, and after making an excuse about the library to Ron in the common room, Hermione floated through the halls to the Room. She saw the door handle had small hearts on it and she laughed at the room they had imagined for themselves, teenage love draping all of it. Opening the door she saw the tall blonde figure, his robe oddly black and his skin oddly pale against the sun-tanned witches and wizards in blue and pink robes on the posters. Hermione certainly knew what she preferred, and caressed the white hands, letting them enflame her another time…

So the rest of the week passed, in a wild whirl of attraction. All day Hermione would live towards the evening, her quill writing eagerly, her wand waving in the air and she herself actively chatting and laughing with others, working the seconds, minutes, hours that separated her from Draco out of the way. The days went by in a rush of anticipation, to come to a halt in time when his hands were around her. Hermione felt free now the looming darkness, the denied feelings deep inside her, had finally been released. All of it she could utter by simply laying her lips on those of Draco.

Only now she really understood why things had not worked out with Krum. She had been so flattered, when the famous Quidditch player with his black eyes had laid his gaze on her. At first she had almost thought she was in love, but she had been mistaken. She had mistaken his dark appearance and the dark school from whence he came, for an answer to the dark longing in her. In time she found out she was wrong, she found out they did not share these feelings within. In Draco Hermione found what Krum had shown on the outside, though the way Draco looked made you expect something different at first. His white skin glowed as snow in a winter's night, but it was warm and soft to the touch when she laid her head against it. As she did. Every night…


	5. Secrets

**_Note from Quaffle: _That's right readers, this chapter is about secrets. But that's really all I can say… Read and review please! **

**  
Chapter five  
Secrets**

It was a little before 8 O'clock in the evening. Harry and Ron were sitting in the common room, amusing themselves by drawing pictures and then putting some kind of spell on them to make them move. There was an entire page full of Snitches being chased by Harry's and Ron' being chased by Bludgers. On another page, Ron had drawn a comic of himself duelling a mighty wizard and saving a pretty young princess from a dragon. He was just about to add an identical twin to the princess, when he saw Hermione come down from the girls dormitories and head for the portrait hole. Ron looked annoyed. "Hermione, _must _you do homework in the library _every_ night?" He scowled.

"Yes." Hermione said sternly. "You know how much time it takes to finish everything. _I'm_ working by a schedule in stead of doing everything last minute like you."

The part about the schedule was perfectly true, but of course it wasn't the library that she headed off to every night.

"Well since when can't you do your homework here in the common room?" Ron asked.

"I want to be able to concentrate Ron."

"Well you never had any trouble with that before."

"I also want to be able to look things up, so I'm going to the library." With that, she left.

"I'm telling you, something's not right." Ron said to Harry. Harry shrugged.

"You know how she is, if she wants to go to the library every night it's fine with me."

"Well she does a lot of homework in her dormitory too, Ginny told me. Since when does she do her homework there? She spends hours on it, and then she goes to the library too? You can't tell me it's _that_ much work. I say something's not right."

Harry considered this for a moment, then said: "Why don't you ask her."

Ron huffed. "Yeah right, and let her have a go at me? I'd rather not risk it mate."

Ron looked down at his comic and saw that Harry had done some handy work on it when he hadn't been looking. In stead of Ron saving the beautiful princess, it now showed Ron tripping over his oversized feet while the princess was smooching the mighty wizard.

"Very funny." He said to Harry and got up.

Hermione trotted off to the Room of Requirement, feeling slightly uneasy. Ron had obviously noticed the unusual amount of time she had allegedly been spending in the library lately. Soon she would have to think of a safer way to meet Draco.

She went into The Room and found Draco sitting on the bed that had appeared for the first time a few days ago, apparently to make them more comfortable while making out. "Hi Draco." She said. He looked at her and smiled. "Hi Hermione." He took her hand and pulled her down beside him. They lay down on their backs and Hermione rested her head on his chest.

"Do you know I've had a crush on you from the first time I saw you?" Hermione said. Draco smiled. "Me too.".

"Really?" Said Hermione chuckling. "You had a funny way of showing it."

Draco blushed. "I know… I'm sorry." He said.

Hermione sighed softly. "I wish we didn't have to keep this a secret." She said. "But if my friends find out then… you know..."

"I know, same here."

"I'm just glad we have the Room of Requirement. I don't know what we would've done without it. And it's not the first time it's come in useful either."

Hermione was deliberately steering the conversation in the direction of The Room. Lately she had been giving a lot of thought to that day when she had first bumped into Draco. She still wondered what he had been using the Room of Requirement for. She had been meaning to ask him, but didn't really know how. She decided now would be as good a time as ever.

"Draco… do you remember that day we bumped into each other in the hallway? I mean, of course you do, but… I was wondering… I just came out of the room, and you were about to go in… so… what were you going to use the Room of Requirement for?"

She could feel Draco take a sharp intake of breath.

"I was just… going to check on something… something I stored in The Room."

"What did you store?" Hermione asked.

"Oh… it's nothing fancy… just something I'm working on… I'm repairing it." He replied.

Hermione got curious now. When they had overheard Draco in Nocturn Alley, they had heard him say that he wanted to repair something.

"Well…" Hermione said. "What's it for?"

Draco took in another deep breath. Hermione pushed herself up on her elbow and looked down at him with questioning eyes. Her other hand lay on his shoulder.

"Hermione…" He said. "I can't tell you right now… I'm sorry."

Hermione's heart was pumping fast in her chest. Why wouldn't he tell her? Was this something to worry about? She looked him sternly in the eyes. "Please tell me it's not something bad."

Draco let his head fall to the side, looking away with a blank expression. "I just can't tell you right now." He said in a very empty voice. "I just can't."

Hermione kept looking at him, but wouldn't meet her eyes. After a few moments, she lay her head back on his chest. There was an awkward silence. Hermione was trying to decide what to do, or even more so, what to feel. When Draco put his hand on her waist, she simply got up and left.

She had barely closed the door behind her when she heard a familiar voice that made her squint her eyes as though she was in pain.

"I thought you were at the library?" It was Ron.

"What are you doing here Ron?"

Ron pretended not to hear and continued. "You said you were at the library."

"Yeah well, I came here to have a look at some books. You know, those spell books from the DA room." 'That's right.' Hermione thought. 'Don't panic, this excuse is perfectly plausible. There's nothing he can say now.'

"Don't give me that crap Hermione, I know you weren't in the DA room. Not unless you specifically asked for the girly version of it." Ron said pointing at the door handle. Hermione looked at it and to her horror saw the little hearts on it that she had noticed before.

Now he really had her cornered…


	6. Queen, Jack and King

**_Note from Snitch:_ What's this situation you have put her in, Quaffle? You're making things rather difficult for her :-). What will Hermione do: can she keep her secret or will she be forced to confide in Ron? To what lengths will she go for her hidden relationship? **

**Chapter 6  
Queen, Jack and King**

Hermione's mind was racing. How on earth could she get out of this one? There was no more denying to it, no more excuses she could think of. But she couldn't tell him, it was just impossible! Ron would not speak to her again, after the humiliations Draco had put Ron through. Harry would team op with Ron, she knew all about it, it had happened before in her third year! But she would not lose her friends, she just would not! Draco would now come out of the Room any moment… The impossibility of the situation made her heart beat so fast she got light-headed. Desperation made her eyes prickle.

Then Hermione knew what to do. It was so low, she felt sickened with herself: her stomach seemed to push against her throat. But there was no choice here…

Hermione let the prickle take over, her eyes filling with tears. Tiny salt rivers ran down her face, coming easy with the despair pushing them out of her eyes.

"O Ron, I'm so sorry I lied to you," she said, looking up at him with a quivering lip. Hermione saw how the anger of Ron, which he had built up, waiting for her to come out of the Room, turned into a surprised, non-comprehending look. This was what she had aimed for, boys couldn't handle crying girls, and she knew Ron certainly wouldn't be able to handle a crying Hermione. She knew she had to take it a little further, to leave Ron with no questions after he had recovered of the sight of her crying. Betrayal burning hot, she continued.

"It's just that I sometimes feel," she snuffed her nose, "so lonely". At this point she didn't dare to look him in the eyes, the lie was too cheap. But she felt Ron coming towards her, unsurely laying his hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. Hermione laid her head on his chest, gently turning him away from the door.

"Since Krum and I split up," she sobbed, putting her face in the black fabric of Ron's robes, "sometimes I just have to cry, and I don't want the others to see." She felt Ron moving his arm, hesitating.

"It's all right", said Ron, eventually laying the arm around her shoulder, slightly shaking. "You don't have to be ashamed of that. Here, just cry". Hermione gave it a few more sobs and then she saw Draco in the right corner of her eye, hurrying down the hall.

"Just… You won't tell Harry, will you?", she looked him in the face, cheeks still wet.

"No, no, don't worry about that." Ron tried to give her a smile, but felt much too nervous in the situation to succeed in doing it.

"Thanks, really thanks a lot Ron" Hermione gave him a watery smile and dabbed her eyes and cheeks with her robes. "Let's just go back to the tower now…"

In silence they walked back, Hermione trying to get her face back to normal, otherwise there would be questions, Ron still stunned at the thought of having just held Hermione. Hermione felt increasingly guilty and after they had climbed through the portrait hole, she quickly told Ron she was going to bed and hurried up the stairs to her dormitory. Once she was there she let herself fall upon her bed and pressed her face hard into the pillow. Now true hot tears streamed out of her eyes and moistened the fabric of the pillow. She had never meant for things to go this way. A lie about going to the library, okay, that wasn't so bad, but now she had lied not only with words, but with all of her body too. And this lie had been meant to go deep into Ron, playing with his feelings. Hermione had seen it, when she was with Krum, Ron had been extremely jealous. Sometimes just small things Ron did too, already for years she had seen them, little things betraying what he really felt for her.

Hermione had known, as soon as she had thought of crying, that Ron would not be able to withstand that, that his anger would dissolve in her tears. Then the lie, the head against his chest… so low… making him believe there was a chance that she might feel about him what he felt about her.

She had not wanted this to happen. What for? All those years in which she had built a friendship with Ron, and now, for some secret kissing and touching, she was betraying all of it! It was not a price she was willing to pay. Yet she knew, there was more to it than just kissing: it was the only way in which she could express a side of herself which no one else but Draco would allow her to.

Then the memory of what had just happened outside of the Room, made place for the one of what had taken place inside the Room. Draco had concealed something from her. He had plainly refused to tell her. Hermione could tell this thing was important, and that it was wrong, by the way he did not meet her eyes when she was waiting for his explanation. Then why wouldn't he confide in her! Hermione stumped the wood of her four-poster with her fist. She had risked much for him, now she had even betrayed a friend, but he wouldn't risk the same. Wasn't Draco feeling like putting as much in their being together as Hermione did? Apparently not, said a small voice in Hermione's head and it made her feel empty, suddenly drained. Apparently not… She sat up, back against the end of her bed. Then it was clear. She wouldn't meet him again. Not tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, nor the days after that. Feeling numb, she undressed and got under her blankets, falling into an empty sleep.

Next day, Hermione felt sad, for both the betrayal and her decision, but she felt the two of them sort of justified another. For both she had sacrificed.

During Potions Hermione felt Draco's gaze burning in her back, right through all the purple steam which issued from the cauldrons. When both of them went to get the fairy eggs required for the brew they were preparing, Hermione and Draco looked each other in the eye, Draco's eyes begging for some sort of forgiveness for what he had done yesterday, and for an explanation of what he had seen when he had left the Room, but Hermione's look was one of mingled anger and regret. She quickly looked away, weighed the fairy eggs carelessly and hurried away to her cauldron. She added the eggs, by plunging the bunch in. The fluid was supposed to turn silver, but Hermione's purple brew only became a greyish pink.

"You should have added them in pairs," Harry told her, looking in his ragged, old copy of _Advanced Potion-making_.

"No, I shouldn't have. It's only your _Prince_ saying that. I told you, you shouldn't listen to him. Who knows who he might be! I thought our second year would have taught you that!" Hermione snapped.

"I can't see how me getting good grades for Potions for once can cause any problems. Making perfect potions doesn't come naturally to us all, you know," Harry said.

"Yeah, the book's really handy!" added Ron. Hermione felt a surge of guilt about yesterday come up and decided not to continue the argument.

That evening she sat in the common room with Ron and Harry and helped them with their homework. Hermione felt she owed, felt she had to invest in their friendship. Being friends also involved giving and she felt she had not given much recently. First she corrected their Astronomy essays ("No Ron, Neptune is _not_ orange"), and after that they played a game, even though Hermione still had some homework of herself to revise. Harry had bewitched a Muggle pack of cards of Hermione with which they played beggar-thy-neighbour. They had a good time, Harry en Hermione trying to explain the game to Ron, who had never played this Muggle-game and laughing about the squealing protest of the queen when she was laid on top of the jack and her approving remarks when you laid a king on top of her. Hermione felt a sad longing when it was eight o'clock, thinking of how Draco would probably be waiting in the Room, growing increasingly disappointed as time past without her arriving. But she should not think of that and she tried to laugh the thought away over a scream of the queen: after all, she had made the right choice.


	7. Too much to handle

**_Note from Quaffle: _And you berate _me_ for making things difficult Snitch? The hypocrisy is despicable. What about what _you've_ just done? I may have been the one to make Hermione walk out of the room and away from Draco, but _you're_ the one who just went ahead and had her walk out on him completely! What's to become of our beloved couple now? Well obviously this relationship can't just end in silence, so let me see what new events I can conjure up… **

**Chapter seven  
Too much to handle**

Draco felt terrible. It was already four days ago that it had happened. And it had happened so fast… one moment he and Hermione had been snuggling, and the next she had walked out the door. And was it all because he wouldn't tell her what he was working on? It was something he had to keep to himself, couldn't she understand that? It was an important task, one that had been entrusted to him alone.

He wanted to prove his worth, and he had to do it for his family…

If only Hermione knew what he was going through, but he couldn't tell her. If he told her… it would all be over.

The moment she walked out the door, Draco had felt like a strong hand had taken hold of his heart, squeezing. It had been days since this incident, and Draco couldn't bear it. He had to talk to her, he had to make her understand. But she wouldn't let him near her, so what was he going to do? How could he corner her without being seen when her friends were always around?

"Hermione what's wrong?" Ginny asked, following her into the dormitory. "You look so sulky…"

"Do I?" Said Hermione, trying to sound genuinely surprised. Ginny was always quick to pick up on her friend's mood swings, and Hermione wasn't surprised at all that she confronted her with it. They had always talked about everything, but this was something she couldn't tell Ginny about. Besides, she and Draco were over. Why would she risk her friendship with Ginny over an ex boyfriend?

He had hardly been a boyfriend to begin with; they never got much farther than making out...

"Yes you do." Ginny said.

"Oh? Well I'm perfectly fine, so don't worry. I am a bit tired though, maybe that's what you saw."

Ginny looked at her sceptically. "You're not having another row with Ron are you? I swear that boy has _got_ to go get himself a brain some time."

Hermione huffed in agreement. "Right you are. But I didn't have a row with him."

"Then what is it Hermione? You're sulking and I know it."

"I'm fine, really!"

Ginny looked at her for a moment longer. It was obvious she didn't believe her. "Well…" She said. "…tell me when you're ready." And then she walked out the door.

Hermione felt guilty, but it was for the best.

Another potions lesson came to pass. Hermione now dreaded every class she shared with Draco. Whenever he could risk it, he would quickly glance at her, silently begging her to meet him and talk to him. And she would do everything she could not to meet his eyes. That way it would be easier for him too. She didn't want to make it extra hard on him by giving him hope, even though he had hurt her by not confiding in her. She wanted him to forget about her as quickly as he could so he could be happy again.

This lesson they were to make a potion called 'memoriam effluosis.' It was a potion that could bring back old forgotten memories, often from your youth. It was very hard to make, and it was perhaps not a very useful potion; random old memories popping up was not particularly helpful for anything, but it was fun nonetheless. They all had to sample their neighbour's potion after it was finished. As usual, most people had failed in successfully making it, and the results were quite amusing. When Harry sipped some of Ron's potion, he started remembering all sorts of things that he was quite sure he had never experienced, from eating a living frog to taking over the country with his political prowess and natural charm.

"It looks like you've used an excessive amount of Ginko Biloba. It'sa brain stimulant, essential for the potion to work, but the amount you seem to have put in was simply too much for the brain to handle. As you can see, Harry's brain got too much stimulation, causing him to 'remember' things that weren't real." Said Slughorn as he evaluated the results of Rons's potion.

Of course Harry's potion was made perfectly, thanks to the Half-blood Prince, and when Hermione took a sip, long forgotten memories immediately started resurfacing. She remembered sitting in a pushchair, being pushed by her mother on a sunny day on the market. She remembered recording silly conversations with a tape recorder with friends. She remembered being wrongly accused of bullying someone at school when she was ten, and being punished for it. It was quite fun really, Hermione got a very nostalgic feeling from all those memories.

The bell rang, and everyone started filing out, heading towards the great hall for lunch. "I'm going to the library guys, I'll see you after our free period." Hermione said to Harry and Ron. "Aren't you going to have lunch first?" Asked Harry.

"No, I'm not really hungry."

It was true. She hadn't been very hungry at all lately, with all those worries on her mind. She started walking in the direction of the library, her mind still lingering on her long lost memories. Suddenly she was pulled out of thought and into an empty classroom by a strong hand. Before she knew what was going on, she was standing in front of Draco, who looked at her with an expression that was unfamiliar to her; a mix of fear and frustration.

"Hermione…" He said. "…what is going on? Why won't you talk to me?"

Hermione was stunned by the abruptness of the whole situation. She just stared at him.

"Hermione I'm sorry that I can't tell you what that thing is that I'm working on, but don't you think it's a little over the top to just walk out on me and stop talking to me the way you did? Can't we at least talk about this?"

Now Hermione got a little angry. "Talk about it? Talk about _what, _exactly? If you won't tell me your 'big secret,' then what is there to talk about?"

"Well you could at least hear me out about _why _I can't tell you about it. Maybe I've got a very good reason for it!" Draco retorted, getting a little heated himself.

"I'm listening…" Hermione said angrily.

Draco remained silent for a moment, thinking about how to explain himself.

"I can't tell you because… it's something really important to me and… it's something I need to do alone, something I need to keep to myself until it's finished. Besides… if I told you… I don't think you would understand."

Hermione looked utterly unimpressed. "Right… something you need to keep to yourself… _thát_ I already knew." She said, gesturing wildly in her still mounting anger.

"And something that I wouldn't understand? You think that's a good enough reason to hide it from me? That's not the way it works Draco! You can't keep things from me just because I wouldn't understand!"

Draco huffed. 'Well…" He said crossly. "…what do you want me to do then?"

Hermione looked as though he just said something really stupid. "I thought I made that pretty clear. If you're going to hide things from me, then it's over. I can't be with you like this Draco. I want you to tell me right now, or else I'll walk right back out that door, just like last time."

There was turmoil in Draco's eyes, and Hermione could see it. She could see he was considering it, but that it was a very difficult decision for him. 'Maybe I shouldn't even bother to wait for this. If it costs him that much effort to tell me, he might as well forget about it. I need him to be able to be honest with me.'

She was about to turn around and walk away, but her inner voice was not done talking yet. 'But maybe I should give him a chance. I care about him so much, I shouldn't give up on him that easily. Let's at least give him this chance…'

Draco had turned his back towards her, his fists were balled, and it was as though the decision cost him physical strength. Then he turned around abruptly. "Fine." He said. "I'll tell you."

Hermione sat down on a table, and Draco did the same, sitting opposite her.

"It's a job I'm doing…" He said, his voice now calm and almost embarrassed, as though any moment he expected her to slap him for what he was about to say.

"It's for the Dark Lord…"

Hermione's heart skipped a beat, no, a dozen… "What?" She said in disbelief. Her voice shook.

"My father's in prison and… he failed the Dark Lord… so the Dark Lord wants _me_ to do something for him now."

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand, shocked. "Draco…" She said. "Draco you mustn't…"

"I have to Hermione." Draco said sternly.

"No you don't!" Hermione replied immediately. "You don't have to do something just because he tells you to. You can refuse. I know it's scary but… Dumbledore will keep you safe, I know he will… if you don't refuse him now you'll get caught up in this forever Draco… if you don't…"

"I have to do it Hermione!" Draco yelled desperately, standing up. He started pacing back and forth in front of her.

"I have to do it! If I don't, he'll kill my family!" Hermione was shocked once again. She stood up too, tears forming in her eyes. "Oh my god… Draco…" She whispered. She slowly started walking towards him, but he took a few steps back. And then he spoke five devastating words:

"I have to kill Dumbledore."

Hermione's heart froze over and she stopped dead in her tracks. 'This is a joke. This is a nightmare. This is anything but real.'

"I have to kill Dumbledore, or the Dark Lord kills my family… I don't have a choice."

As all the blood left her face, Hermione felt a strange sense of numbness. 'This is definitely not real.'

_  
**Extra note from Quaffle: **_**There, let's see how you handle _this_, Snitch! #Laughs wickedly#**

**P.S.: Sorry that I took a while on this chapter, but still, it was only a few days… Also, Snitch won't be home for a while, what was it, a week? So unfortunately you won't see a new chapter until after she gets back. Sorry once again…**


	8. Troublesome Truths

**_Note from Snitch: _Finally back from my little trip folks (thanks for all the reviews you have given the past few chapters by the way). It took me some time to get back into the story, but I hope I eventually did. At any rate, the end of chapter seven was bound to give some exciting developments in this chapter. Hermione wanted to know Draco's secret very badly, but now that she knows it, what is she supposed to do with this newly gained knowledge? Read and shudder at what I will do to our main characters now, Quaffle! **

**  
Chapter eight  
Troublesome Truths**

Hermione could see herself standing there, completely still amidst the wooden school benches on the cold, grey stones of the floor. Her face was expressionless, looking at Draco with her eyes wide open. These were trying to understand Draco's thoughts, but he was looking away and his face showed mingled emotions. The blush on his cheeks expressed his embarrassment, which was accompanied by fear in his eyes. Yet there was a third a emotion, silently glowing from under his skin and playing around the corners of his mouth. It clashed with the embarrassment and was partially concealed behind the red blush, but Hermione saw it for what it was. It was pride that Draco was trying to hide. Hermione felt revolted at the thought Draco would take pride in such a mission. Anger stirred up inside her and made her hand lash, hitting Draco in the face and leaving a red mark of her hand on his skin.

"How can you be proud of any task that he would give you! He can only bring you to shame! He lets all his servants crawl for him! Yes, your father too!" she yelled at Draco, who looked up at her, angry and making an indignant noise.

"Harry's told me how they all beg to him, kissing his robes, so eager to please him!"

"Harry." scowled Draco, laughing nastily for a short moment.

"Yes, Harry!" said Hermione angrily.

"Like he doesn't do everything that old fool tells him to!"

"Following wise advise is something completely different than being forced to act by fear! Like you are doing". The last thing she added more quietly. She looked at Draco and felt tears forming in her eyes. "You mustn't do it… Don't you understand? You can't kill someone! It's wrong! It is better to have your own live ended than to end that of another. It is better to die yourself…" The last words silently drowned in the tears that ran down her face. Draco was now blinking his eyes quickly to keep the tears away, trying not to show the same weakness to Hermione.

"I… I don't want to die," he said with a catch in his voice.

"You have… you have to… you can't…" Hermione stuttered, but the image of the classroom was replaced by one of two years ago. The grey, stone floor turned into grass and the walls transformed into giant hedges. The wood of the benches became the skin and robes of people who were all around one person, lying in the grass, his black hair tossed up even more than usual, his robes stained with blood and his arms clutching a lifeless figure. Yet as Hermione looked closer, this time she didn't see Cedric Diggory, but Draco. His face was blank and his blue eyes were wide open, but totally empty. There was no mark of violence, no damage to see on his skin, but the little colour that was usually there, was gone. He was empty… and would never be filled with emotion or life again…

"No…" she sobbed out and the image made place for reality again, in which blood was still flowing through Draco.

"Don't die", she said and put herself against Draco, feeling his body still safely warm and his chest moving as he breathed, his life sheltering her from what she had just seen. "Don't die…" she repeated, whispering, and she cried on his shoulder. Draco straightened his back.

"No," he said, "I won't…" The pride on his face had been replaced with a sense of duty and seriousness, now that the full impact of the task he had taken upon him dawned on him.

"But don't… don't kill him," Hermione said very quietly, knowing her two demands clashed, but her conscience demanded that she said it.

Draco turned his head away and remained silent. Hermione recognized the moment from the time in the Room when he wouldn't tell her what he was doing. Yet she knew what forcing him to break that silence had brought, so this time she chose to join him in being silent.

Like that they stood there, two joined statues, until noise in the hall announced the end of lunch and broke them apart, Draco leaving for his next lesson.

Now they were bound to each other, sharing this dark secret. She knew she would not betray him, for silence she had chosen in the empty classroom. It troubled her that she was now somehow an accomplice in something so evil. She only said she did not want Draco to kill Dumbledore, but she would not speak any more of it, trying to lessen her involvement. In time, the whole business seemed to become that of someone else, some other Draco far away, whom she had only met briefly a few times. When they were together, sometimes they'd even feel like a normal couple, just longing for each other, kissing, chatting about the day, stealing a moment in a quiet corner. However, these moments remained pierced by flickers in their eyes, which spoke of the things their tongues did not.

But keeping their relationship secret became increasingly difficult. People kept asking questions about where she had been, especially Ron, and Hermione had the feeling Ginny did not believe her lies and that Ginny would not settle for anything less than the truth for much longer.

One night Hermione was sitting in the Gryffindor common room very late. It was deserted, everyone had long since gone to bed, but Hermione was behind on her homework, because she had spent the evening with Draco. The letters in her Defence against the Dark Arts book looked as though they were performing little dances in front of her eyes, but she knew she had to get it finished. Hermione shoved her chair a little closer to the fire to get better light and rubbed her eyes to stop things from being so hazy, but when she looked up again after that, a figure with long red hair was looking at her.

"Ginny," Hermione said, "I didn't know you weren't in bed yet… Why are you still awake?"

"I had a little night time stroll with a very nice guy from Huffelpuff," Ginny said, with a small giggle. "But you, are you still doing homework?" she asked, worried.

"Yes, I still had some left, I just wanted to get it done" Hermione answered.

"But you said you had been doing homework in the library tonight?"

"Well, yeah, but it's very much, sixth year is very busy, you know" Hermione said, She made up excuses like this all day, but Ginny did not seem convinced.

"It can't be that bad. You never leave things this late."

"I just…" Hermione sputtered, feeling very uncomfortable and knowing that Ginny could see it.

"Hermione, why do you keep lying? You don't need to make up all kinds of excuses for me. I know something's going on with you. I'm worried. Will you please tell me what's up?" Ginny said, looking at Hermione with troubled eyes. Hermione looked away into the fire, realising how she much she resembled Draco like that. She felt so tired of lying to Ginny, because she knew Ginny didn't believe her. Ginny had never deserved that, she had always been a good friend to her. Hermione searched her brain for yet another way out of the situation, but her head hurt and she felt exhausted by doing it.

"Listen Ginny, you don't want to know," Hermione said wearily.

"I do," Ginny said very clearly. "Please tell me," she repeated. "Is someone doing something… bad to you?" she tried cautiously, when Hermione remained silent.

Hermione gave a sad snort. That Ginny was thinking that was the problem, something which Hermione couldn't help, in which she was a victim and not an offender. Shame crept upon Hermione, getting Ginny so worried about something which was entirely Hermione's own fault. Ginny was confused by Hermione's reaction and looked at her, non-understanding.

"No, it's no one else's fault," Hermione said, "it's my fault. Mine!" she said, angry with herself. She took a deep breath.

"I'm seeing Draco".


	9. Ups and Downs

**_Note from Quaffle:_ Well Snitch, I read you chapter, but I didn't quite shudder. At least not the way you would have liked me to. It's not like you created such a mess that there was no way out for me. It's actually quite easy to clear up the mess you made, as you can see in my new chapter. Thanks by the way for reviewing everyone. And let me warn you that this is yet another chapter of emotional dialogue. If you like the emotional parts, then I hope to please you with this chapter. If not, Snitch and I promise that there is less talk and more action ahead!  
**

**Chapter nine  
Ups and Downs**

Those three words hung in the air for a while. Hermione didn't look up, but she could feel Ginny's eyes on her.

"You're seeing Draco? As in, dating him?" Ginny asked calmly but with a shocked expression.

"Yes."

There was another moment of silence while Ginny studied Hermione's face.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?"

Hermione already regretted having told Ginny about this. Any second now Ginny would start laughing or yelling. Or maybe she'd just walk out the door. But she definitely wouldn't understand.

"You're seeing Draco?" Ginny repeated with an incredulous laugh. Hermione said nothing.

"We're talking about the same Draco here aren't we? Draco Malfoy? _Pureblood_ Draco?

Mister. -I'm better than you no matter what your abilities are- Draco? Is that the Draco we're both talking about here?"

Hermione felt hurt and angry at the same time. A part of her knew Ginny was right to feel that way, but she didn't care. She was tired, both physically and mentally, and she did not feel like having Ginny walk all over her.

"Yes! That's the one, alright? What of it?"

"What of it? Didn't I already make my point? How can you be involved with someone who makes an art out of bullying others, including you!"

"It's complicated. There's more to him than meets the eye Ginny!"

"Oh really? And what's that?" Ginny asked challenging. "Don't tell me that behind his rough exterior is a soft and gentle boy who has overcome his hatred for you and 'mudbloods' in general, and has now even learned to love you."

"It's not that simple. He never hated me to begin with. It was just an act he was putting on. The same kind of act that I have been putting to hide my feelings for him. I know he's not exactly the perfect guy… but there's definitely a good side in him. When I'm with him he's kind and gentle and… well I'm in love with him Ginny. And he's in love with me, isn't that what matters?"

Ginny sighed deeply, seemingly not knowing whether to consider this clarification, or to brush it aside and declare Hermione nuts. She took some time before she said angrily:

"What about all those things he did to Harry? Scaring him by dressing up as Dementors and walking onto the Quidditch pitch, challenging him for a duel and instead of showing up sending Filch after him, and how about that broken nose you told me about? You said Draco broke Harry's nose on the Hogwarts Express, remember? What about that?"

Hermione cast her eyes down. "I know… but… most of it wasn't really harmful was it? Boys will be boys, you know… he went a little too far a few times but… I'm sure he'll grow out of it. I don't approve of it, I really don't. But I want to give him a chance."

They looked at each other for a while longer.

'She's taking it pretty well…' Hermione thought. 'She's obviously not happy about it but she hasn't started yelling yet.'

"God Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed with newfound exasperation. "I can't believe this! How long has this been going on?"

"Well… that depends on what you mean exactly… we started seeing each other months ago but… my feelings for him go way back…"

"Way back? Way back to when?" Ginny asked, turning red. She had remained relatively calm so far, but for some reason she was now really starting to get angry.

"W… well…" Hermione stammered. "Pretty much back to… the first time I saw him…"

"And _when_ exactly were you planning on telling me this?" Ginny yelled, her eyes blazing.

"Well I didn't think you'd understand!" Hermione said, half angry, half apologetic. Her thoughts were suddenly transported back to Draco trying to explain to her why he couldn't tell her his secret

"_If I told you… I don't think you would understand."_ He had said. _"I wouldn't understand? You think that's a good enough reason to hide it from me? That's not the way it works Draco! You can't keep things from me just because I wouldn't understand!" _

Hermione instantly felt shame rising.

"You should have told me Hermione! You didn't even give me a chance to try and understand! To be honest, I think I would have understood a lot better back then than I do now!"

"I know… you're right… I should have told you-"

"Yes you should have!" Ginny cut her off. Her jaw was clenched and Hermione could have sworn her eyes were slightly watery.

"You're the least person I expected this from Hermione. I didn't think _you'd_ ever hurt me like this! I'm tired; I'm going up to bed. Goodnight." She turned on her heel and swiftly moved up the stairs.

"Ginny I'm sorry! Please!" Hermione cried out after her.

"Save it." Ginny said harshly, and she left Hermione standing alone in the common room.

Hermione softly started crying. She felt extremely guilty about hurting Ginny, and all she wanted right now was to make up with her. But that would have to wait; she couldn't very well barge into Ginny's dormitory in the middle of the night and drag her out; she'd surely wake the others. So she went to bed too.

"Why can't all this be easy? Why can't I just be with Draco without having all these problems?' She now did understand Draco better; why he hadn't told her about his secret mission. It was the exact same reason that Hermione hadn't told her friends about her feelings for Draco; because she was afraid that they wouldn't understand. It may not have been a very legitimate reason, but it was still the reason they had both kept their secrets. She wondered why people like her and Draco had to go trough these things, why everything had to be so hard for them. Hermione softly cried, feeling the pain of her secrets and her fight with Ginny weigh heavily down on her. Right now all she wanted was to be able to lay in Draco's arms… Finally she fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Ron lay awake in his bed, thinking about Lavender Brown.

She'd been acting kind of strange lately; she was all smiles around him, and she laughed at all his jokes. It had been going on for quite a while already, but Ron hadn't really noticed until today. Ron had always been a little ignorant, and Lavender had had to put some effort into making him notice. Her gestures had become increasingly obvious, until finally today, in a fleeting moment, she had said: 'Your such a goof,' kissed him on the cheek and left him behind with a face as red as his hair.

So now he was in his bed, allowing the penny to drop.

'I don't suppose she fancies me?' He thought.

'No way. Why would she suddenly fancy me after all these years?' It didn't seem plausible.

'Then again… There was the whole thing at the ministry last year. I guess I am a bit of a hero now… maybe that finally opened her eyes… maybe she finally realised that I'm worth something…'

Ron blushed slightly, thinking of the possibilities. If she really did fancy him then maybe he should consider asking her out or something…

The next morning Hermione woke up slowly. She opened her eyes and yawned, but halfway trough her yawn she suddenly remembered her fight with Ginny. She instantly felt very sad again and wondered what would happen next. She got dressed and went down for breakfast. Hermione sat down next to Harry and Ron, who were sitting opposite Ginny. Hermione carefully looked at her, hoping Ginny wouldn't give her a death glare or something similar. She was pleasantly surprised to see Ginny give her a faint but unmistakable smile. Hermione quickly ate her breakfast and hoped Ginny wouldn't take too long either. When they were both done, Hermione leaned forward and whispered: 'Can we talk, please?'

Ginny nodded. They went out into the hall and into a secluded corner. Hermione looked at Ginny with an expression of shame.

"Ginny I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt you… I wanted to tell you, I really did, but I couldn't. I was so scared of your reaction…"

Ginny bit her lip and frowned. "It's okay. I'm not really angry anymore. I guess I can understand why you didn't tell me, though I'm still a little hurt… and pretty shocked… you do understand that don't you?"

"I do. Of course I do… but could you please give Draco and I the benefit of the doubt?" Hermione begged.

Ginny looked at her seriously and took a deep breath. Then she nodded. "But when will you tell Ron and Harry?"

Hermione looked shocked. "God!" She said. "It was hard enough having to tell _you!_"

"Well you'll have to tell them some time, won't you?"

Hermione sighed deeply. "I know. I'm just not sure if I'm ready… I'll think about it."

But she knew she wouldn't be able to tell them. Not any time soon. It would be mayhem when she told them, and she already had plenty of that for the time being. She didn't even want to have to think about it now. So she decided she wouldn't.

That's when the bell rang, announcing that it was time for class.

Hermione looked at Ginny. "I'm so glad you're not angry with me!" she said with a relieved smile. Ginny stepped forward and hugged her. "You've always been a great friend. You don't deserve it to be ditched at the first sign of trouble. Now let's get to class."

"Alright, see you."

"See you."

Hermione felt a lot better after making up with Ginny. She now had someone to talk to about her secret. She knew she had Draco, but still, being able to talk to Ginny made her feel a lot less lonely.


	10. Stuck in a Web

**_Note from Snitch:_ Well, as promised, chapter ten will give us some action! All this difficult talking was bound to come to a physical conflict at some point. The chapter is long, I know, but there was just a lot to tell about this event. Luckily our Hermione now has a friend to help her deal with the problems she has. Or has she?  
**

**Chapter ten  
Stuck in a web**

After finishing her pumpkin ice, one of her favourite desserts, Hermione hurried out of the Great Hall. When she had passed through the big doors which sealed the Hall, she didn't head for the Gryffindor tower. Instead, she walked down into darker corridors, which lead to the Slytherin common room. Just before getting there, she took a turning on her right, into a barely lit hall. A smile appeared on her face when she saw a glimmer of blonde hair in a dark corner. As she reached to kiss Draco, the sound of footsteps made her freeze.

"Hermione?" said a very familiar voice.

"Ron?", Hermione asked in return, turning pale, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to give you your book, you left it on the table… But then you went here. Why on earth would you go here?" Ron asked, sounding puzzled.

"I… It's…" Hermione started, feeling Draco moving as he tried to get out of the place next to her.

"Who's there?" asked Ron, looking at the corner where he had heard the swishing of a cloak. Then, just as Hermione he saw a glance of blonde hair, so blonde it could hardly be anybody else than…

"Draco!" said Ron, leaving Malfoy no choice but to come out of hiding, covering his body in dim candlelight.

"Yes," he said, sounding nastier than Hermione had heard him in a long time, "how unfortunate that I should now meet people as poor as you so near to my common room". Insulting seemed to come to him naturally.

"Like… like it's _your_ common room," Ron stuttered, only to say something. His ears turned red. Yet he regained his posture, realising how easy Malfoy had unsettled him.

"And anyway, what were you doing here, waiting for Hermione?" he said, glad that his voice had decided to act normal again.

Hermione's heart now seemed to be bouncing up and down all of her chest and head, as she tried to think of a way, an excuse… She had come here herself, why would she have gone here if Draco and all the Slytherins in general were her enemies… Scenario's of blackmail and things like that shot through her… But any moment now Draco would say something, if only he would use his head and not aggravate the problem…

"Come to save your mudblood friend, have you, Weasley, Draco laughed at Ron, "well, our business is none of your business."

Hermione couldn't help but feeling uneasy at the fact the Draco could still be as mean as he had been before, that he would still call her a mudblood with such ease… But it was just an act, just a way of deceiving Ron, she comforted herself. And she had to think, think! What could their business possibly be?

"Hermione, what's happening here?" Ron asked as he turned to her, both angry and confused. Then all the bouncing and shooting thoughts and ideas inside Hermione, conjoined in a click:

"Well, Malfoy here, has stolen my Defence against the Dark Arts essay about Counter-curses!" she said, trying to sound angry and not too triumphant about her finding. Draco looked at her in surprise for a moment, but quickly worked to look mean and snide again, attempting to go along with Hermione, performing the play he had performed with her for many years.

"Yeah, why put in all the work if some mudblood leaves hers lying around!"

"Lying around! Lying around _in my schoolbag_ when I was practicing a spell in class!"

"Ah, how sad. You'll have to write a new one!"

"No way! Give it to me now, or I'll tell –"

"You'll tell who? Like Snape is going to believe what you're saying when I say it isn't true!" Draco laughed. "And it's his business, because it's his class and essay!"

Hermione felt a happy jolt inside her, Draco had guessed exactly where she had wanted to go with the argument. She felt like an actress on stage, improvising on the spot, with a big audience watching her every movement and waiting anxiously for the direction in which she would now steer the conversation. Yet she didn't have to do the latter now, as the audience itself had left its chairs and now climbed on stage:

"Give it back to her, Malfoy!" Ron said, redder than ever and shaking with anger.

"Or what?" said Draco, looking at Ron with amusement glittering in his eyes.

"Well, there's two of us and only one of you!" said Ron, and Hermione blushed, but luckily Ron only looked at Draco, who was now laughing.

"Are you going to eat slugs again to scare me?"

Ron felt the memory slime down his throat once more and raised his wand.

"Ron, don't!" Hermione said. Things were about to get out of hand, badly out of hand.

"He won't! _Aranea_!" exclaimed Draco as he took his wand out of his robes and pointed it at Ron. A glistening, grey bulb came out of the wand and sped towards Ron, branching as it went, turning into a web as big as Hagrid. Yet Ron already had his wand at the ready and yelled a spell which he had practiced in his fifth year in _Dumbledore's Army_.

"_Reverto_!". The web seemed to bounce on an invisible globe around Ron. It headed back to Malfoy, who obviously had not expected any real danger from Ron and was taken by surprise. The sticky, grey threads closed around all of his body and head and tightened, making him look like rolled meat. The tightening continued and made Draco's skin go very red and causing him trouble with breathing. "_Inflammo_," he uttered with the last breath he had left, making the web glow and burn away, leaving red lines al over his skin. Hermione stood frozen, shocked at the bubbling burning marks. However, Ron took the moment to come up with a new spell, which had brought him luck in battle before.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" he said as he swayed his wand and made Malfoy soar up the hall and bump his head against the stone ceiling. Draco screamed in pain, but followed the scream with a repetition of the last word he had just spoken: "_Inflammo_!". A burning jet shot towards Ron and set fire to his red hair. Draco fell to the floor now that Ron's spell had been broken. Scrambling to his feet he spoke once more, though this time he sounded as though he was in a lot of pain.

"Matches your hair nicely, don't you think," he said, jesting as always, but still gasping for breath every few seconds.

Hermione unfroze again and took her own wand out: "_Aqua fluo_!" she said and water from her wand extinguished the fire on Ron's head. Immediately after this she yelled "_Expelliarmus!_", making the two wands of the boys fly out of their hands. This had gone way too far, both of them had severe burnings. Hermione thought this was the end of it, but Ron and Draco didn't seem to agree with her and went for each other, fighting with their now empty hands. Ron hit Draco in the face and after that Draco stumped Ron in the stomach, adding bruises and wounds to their burns. Hermione tried to think of a spell to part them, but she couldn't think of one and tried to get between the two.

"Stop it! Stop it! That's enough!" she screamed, her hands attempting to separate them, pulling their shoulders. Eventually both boys fell to the floor, still looking very angry, but exhausted and in pain too. "That's enough…" Hermione said one last time, now very tired herself too, "let's go to madam Pomfrey…". She helped Ron to get up and looked over his shoulder to Draco. 'Can't help you right now' she mimed with her lips, feeling very sorry about that because Draco was looking even worse than Ron.

"We'll tell someone to come and get you," she said, feeling that was something safe to say, it was only human to do so. Ron made an objecting noise but said nothing and Draco nodded. Then Hermione walked to the hospital wing, slowly and supporting Ron.

On their way there, Hermione and Ron past Snape, who of course did not pass them without addressing them.

"And what would you two be doing here, in the halls leading to the Slytherin common room, Weasley and Granger?" he asked suspiciously and then looked at Ron more closely. "What's up with you, Weasley? Had a fight, have you? Twenty points from Gryffindor." Normally, Hermione would have felt angry, but now she was only thinking about how Draco was laying on the ground…

"Yes," she admitted, "and someone else is wounded too. Draco lays in the last corridor to the right near the Slytherin common room," she said, looking Snape in the eyes. Snape seemed to notice that there was more to these words than Hermione had wanted to make him hear. He looked at her, surprised with this, but then realised that his favourite pupil was laying somewhere, wounded.

"I will deal with this appropriately later," he said, with one last distrusting look, and then hurried down the hall, to Draco.

"Phew", Ron said, "we got off easy…".

"I think there will be a lot more to this…" Hermione said. It had felt like Snape had looked straight into her head when they had looked at each other. Her tiredness had been gone at once and great unease had crept over her. But for the moment, her first concern was that both Ron and Draco were to get to madam Pomfrey. They had both fought for her: a classical scene in which two men duelled for a woman. Not that they had realised that. Still, for both the fight had been to defend their love. Hermione was glad when arriving at the hospital wing stopped her contemplations.

"Oh, what _have_ you done, mister Weasley" said madam Pomfrey as she scanned Ron with her eyes, but it didn't seem like she was waiting for an answer, "burns, bruises, torched hair, blood all over you… here, come", she escorted him to a bed, "you lie down here. Would you be as nice as to get mister Weasley his pyjamas, miss Granger?"

"Oh yes, of course… I'll see you later Ron," Hermione said and she left the room. Walking out she almost bumped into Draco and Snape. She and Draco exchanged a look, but then Hermione realised Snape was there and that he had obviously noticed the moment. Snape grabbed Draco tighter at his shoulder, at which Draco squirmed because he was burnt there, and hissed at Draco.

"We will speak later."

"Now, now, Severus, please be careful with my patients, he looks quite bad enough as it is," said madam Pomfrey and she guided Draco to a bed. Hermione used the moment to hurry out of Snape's sight.

Half an hour later, Hermione returned with two pairs of pyjamas, she didn't know for how long Ron would be required to stay there, and some chocolate frogs she had left: Ron could probably use some cheering up. When she entered the hospital wing, she saw Ron in a bed, a long figure with black hair on the white sheets. He already looked a lot better now that madam Pomfrey had been busy with him. The blood from his wounds had been mopped up and the burns covered with a purple paste.

"Hi Ron! How are you?" she asked him.

"Fine, much better now. Though it still hurts a lot," Ron added, taking on what he probably considered as a heroic look on his face. But it probably did really hurt a lot. The duel had looked painful.

"I bet it does… But madam Pomfrey will have you all right in no time", she smiled at him and Ron joined her in doing so. "I've brought you some pyjamas and here, a few chocolate frogs. Or is your lip too painful?". Hermione looked at Ron's swollen lip.

"Not too painful for chocolate frogs," laughed Ron. "Hey, Ginny!" he said as he turned his head to the entrance of the room. Hermione looked over her shoulder. "Hi Gin!"

"Hi you two! Oh Ron, you look terrible! I heard from Dean he'd seen you going to the hospital wing! What happened?" Ginny's face had turned from happy to worried throughout what she had said. Hermione's face turned worried too, what would Ginny tell Ron when she heard what had happened?

"That guy over there happened," grumbled Ron, nodding in to a far corner of the hospital wing. Hermione looked too and saw Draco laying there, covered in the same purple paste.

"But that's Draco! Did you fight?" Ginny asked, already with some distrust in her voice, but Ron didn't notice it.

"Yeah. The scum was talking to Hermione, he had stolen her essay! I mean, he's stupid, but it's not like he can't write one himself," and as Ron told this, already he got angry again, sitting up straighter in his bed and flexing his muscles. Hermione felt a blush appear on her cheeks and her eyes briefly met those of Ginny. Of course Ginny guessed what had happened.

"And then he started insulting her and me again! Then he cast a spell at me but it bounced on my counter spell", Ron laughed, "got him all right, that one did. Then I bumped his head against the ceiling, he deserved that! Still, he did put my hair on fire…"

"I extinguished it," Hermione said quickly, to show Ginny she did not help Draco.

"Well, I'm just glad nothing really serious happened to you," Ginny said after a moment of silence.

"So am I," said Hermione, relieved that Ginny had not betrayed her. That was at least one thing that had gone right today…


	11. Friend and Foe

**_Note from Quaffle: _Well, I know I'm not as fast as Snitch, who usually posts a new chapter only one day after mine, but at least I've got by far the longest chapter yet. I hope Snitch won't take this comment as a challenge and take away from me the one thing I've still got… **

**Anyway, let's see what happens after the fight, shall we?**

**

* * *

**

**Friend and Foe**

Ron was sitting at a table in Astronomy class; trying to plot the trajectories of the stars Epsilon Eridani, Alpha Centauri and Wolf 359, and figure out what constellations they belonged to. Harry en Hermione were on the other side of the room, going trough some stellar cartography books to look things up. Ron was thinking about the Quidditch match against Slytherin, which was approaching fast. Luckily he had recovered to full health in only a week, so he could still play. 'Although, maybe I'd have been better off lying in the hospital wing, it would have saved me the embarrassment I will endure when I mess up in front of everyone.' He thought.

"Are you nervous about the upcoming Quidditch match?" A voice asked as though it had read his mind. Ron looked up and into the face of Lavender Brown. She smiled seductively at him and played with a lock of her hair. The tips of Ron's ears turned mildly red. "Uh, no of course not… That Slytherin scum doesn't stand a chance." He said with a lazy wave of his hand, trying to sound unconcerned. He wasn't about to let her know that he was nearly wetting his pants with nerves.

"Yes you are." Lavender said. "You're always nervous about matches, everyone knows that. It's common knowledge really…"

"What do you mean common knowledge?" Ron sputtered. "I'm not scared!"

Lavender giggled. "Anyway, you'll do fine." She said, and laid her hand on Ron's arm. His indignation was immediately replaced by a crimson face. "Err…thanks." He mumbled, smiling nervously at her.

Meanwhile, Harry was expressing his suspicions about Draco to Hermione. "He's been acting more suspicious than ever." He said. Since the start of that year, he had been trying to convince her and Ron that Draco was up to something. She hadn't taken him very seriously, but after Draco's confession of course she knew better. So now _she_ was worried about Draco too, but not in the same way as Harry. Draco had told her not to worry, that he would figure things out. She knew he wouldn't kill Dumbledore. Just because his father was a cold blooded killer, didn't mean that he was too. But if Voldemort found out that Draco wasn't going to follow his orders, the Malfoy family would be murdered. How was Draco going to handle the situation?

Harry was still talking to Hermione, but she hadn't heard a word he'd said.

'I finally get to see Draco again tonight.' She thought. She hadn't seen him since the unfortunate duel between him and Ron. The first few days he hadn't been to class, just like Ron, so she hadn't had a chance to talk to him. When he finally came back to class again he had slipped her a note.

'_I can't meet you for now. Crabbe and Goyle are watching me too closely; making sure I'm okay. It would also look too suspicious if I were to go wandering around the castle alone at night when people are expecting me to rest. I'm sure we'll be able to meet soon.'_

It was today, about forty minutes ago, that he had slipped her another note when he had passed her in the hallway.

'_Can we meet tonight? Arithmancy classroom sixth floor, 19:15. Let me know.'_

To prevent people from finding out about their meetings, they always met in different classrooms and at different times, usually somewhere between seven and nine o'clock in the evening. Hermione couldn't wait to see her boyfriend again.

"Draco! How are you?" she said lovingly when she finally saw him again that evening. "You guys shouldn't have fought," She added before Draco could answer. "but let's forget about it." She walked up to him and kissed him on the lips. "So how are you?"

"I'm fine." He said with a smile. "Fully healed and no parts missing."

Hermione chuckled. "Are you sure? Did you check?"

Draco laughed. "Yes."

"Do you want a second opinion?" Hermione asked with a sly smile. Before Draco could say anything she had already started feeling him up. She had missed him a lot and needed to vent her longing. She started at the top, moving her fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp. "Head." She mumbled. Then she moved down to his ears. "Ears…" She moved closer and kissed them. She trailed off to his eyes, leaving kisses in her wake. "Eyes…" she mumbled. Draco laughed softly. "Nose… lips…" They kissed passionately.

"Yes, the lips are definitely still there…" Hermione said with a smile after pulling away. Then she moved down to his neck, kissing him there in a way that elicited a soft moan from him. She then kissed him on the mouth again. Her hands slowly travelled down his back until they reached his bottom, which she eagerly grabbed. A sound of surprise came from Draco's throat and his eyes widened. "Yes, that's accounted for too…" Hermione stated happily. She nuzzled his neck and laughed while placing some more kisses there. Draco laughed too, making his shoulders shake slightly.

They chatted for a little while, but they also had some serious issues to talk about, and soon addressed them.

"That's the second time Ron almost found out about us." Draco said.

"I know… and Harry almost found out too you know. A few weeks ago he saw you slip me a note. We thought no one saw us, but he was all the way at the other end of the corridor. Luckily he couldn't see what we were doing very well from over there. He asked me about the note you gave me, but I was able to convince him that you didn't give me a note at all, but that you just bent over to say something nasty. He finally came to the conclusion that he must have seen it wrong."

Draco chuckled. "All your recent excuses haven't been making me look very good, you know. If you ever plan on telling them about me, I don't think this is going to help."

Hermione chuckled too. "Sorry. She said."

"Anyway," Draco said. "I think we'll have to come up with a better way to contact each other… maybe we could pin notes to one of the notice boards, with a sort of code on them. Something only we understand."

"Not bad…" Said Hermione. "But I have a better idea. Something I've used before. I'll arrange it and show it to you next time, okay?"

Draco nodded. "Okay. But what do we do about Ron?"

Hermione pondered this for a moment.

"Well…" She said. "That time he saw me come out of the Room of Requirement, I'm pretty sure he followed me. And well, our recent incident was also caused by him following me, but that time he only wanted to return my book. So I guess we'll just have to be more careful from now on. Make sure we're not followed."

Draco agreed.

After more making out and chatting some more, Hermione returned to Gryffindor tower. It was about half past eight when she climbed trough the portrait hole. She looked around the common room, spotting Harry in a big chair in front of the fire, reading a girly magazine.

"Twenty ways to please your man." She read aloud, standing behind Harry. Harry laughed. "Ginny was reading it earlier and left it behind." He explained.

"Right." Said Hermione, grinning. She sat down in the chair next to him. "So where's Ron?"

"He's off to find you." Harry said, looking amused.

"What for?" Hermione asked. "Did he need to talk to me?"

"Not really." Said Harry, chuckling now. "He thinks you're up to something. He's got some pretty far fetched theories about you doing things behind our backs, you know. So now he's off to find you and catch you in the act. Whatever act that may be."

Hermione huffed indignantly, even though Ron was absolutely right. 'Dung…' She thought.

About twenty minutes later, Ron came climbing trough the portrait hole, his face red from exertion. It looked like he had been running trough the corridors.

"There you are." He said angrily to Hermione. "You weren't in the library, and you weren't in the Room of Requirement either." He said. "Where were you?"

Hermione was glad she'd had twenty minutes to think of a story. "Didn't I tell you I was helping someone with their homework?"

"Yes!" Ron said angrily. "But you weren't in the library, were you?"

"I never said we were going to the library. We went to an empty classroom to get some privacy."

"Privacy? What'd you need privacy for?" Ron asked, not buying it.

"We didn't want anyone to come bother us, you know, someone like you for instance. Plus, this person isn't too keen on everyone knowing she needs help with her homework."

"Right." Ron said sceptically, squinting his eyes in anger. "Well I'd like to believe you, but you keep going places after dinner, and each time you've got a different weird story. Stop lying to me Hermione!"

Hermione knew that Ron was absolutely right, but for some reason she no longer felt sorry for lying to him. She was angry and annoyed because he wouldn't get off her back. He was making things so much more difficult than they already were.

She still felt bad about lying to Harry though. He was half right about Draco being up to something bad. But she couldn't tell him. He wouldn't understand Draco's situation, and he wouldn't understand that Draco wasn't really a bad person.

"Hermione I want you to tell me where you went!" Ron barked.

"Why don't you just mind your own business?" She snapped back at him.

"I thought we were friends Hermione! But now you keep sneaking off somewhere and lying about it! You know what I think? I think you've got a boyfriend! It makes perfect sense. That's where you're going every time isn't it? To see him? It would explain the door handle I saw on the Room of Requirement. The one with the hearts on it. And it would explain Draco too…"

Hermione's heart nearly stopped beating and all blood left her face. 'He doesn't know, does he? _What_ does he know?'

"Yeah, Draco knows about your little boyfriend, doesn't he? That's what was going on in that corridor the other week. He didn't steal your essay, you _gave_ it to him! He was blackmailing you! You don't want him to tell anyone about your boyfriend, so you agreed to write an essay for him."

Hermione's heart recovered from the shock as she realised Ron didn't know about Draco after all.

"So who is he? And why is it a secret?"

"There's no boyfriend you stupid git! Now lay off me!" She then got up, and stalked upstairs.

Ron looked genuinely offended. "Who's she calling a stupid git! I can't believe her!" He said to Harry.

"Ron, have you considered the thought that maybe there's no boyfriend and she really was helping someone with their homework?" Harry asked calmly.

"Yes I've considered it! But it doesn't make sense does it? Can you honestly tell me you don't find her behaviour at least a little bit suspicious?"

Harry thought for a moment.

"Maybe." He said. "But if there really is something going on, I'm sure she has a good reason to hide it. And I'm also sure she'd tell us eventually. It's probably just a girl thing."

Ron dropped himself in the chair previously occupied by Hermione. "A girl thing… right." He huffed.

The moment Hermione sat down on her bed, Ginny walked in.

"Hi Ginny." She said gloomily.

"Hi." Ginny said. "I saw you arguing with Ron. What was it about this time?"

Hermione groaned and let herself drop on her back. "He thinks I've got a boyfriend. Which I do. And I know he's not going to give up until he's got proof. You know, I really don't understand how he found out. Did he get cleverer lately?"

"Ahh… well…" Ginny said, wincing. Hermione looked at her. "What?"

"Well, you see, before you told me about the whole Draco thing, I already sort of figured that maybe you had a boyfriend of something. At first I thought maybe something bad was happening to you because you were kind of sad and everything… but after a while I just saw that it was something else… I saw the look in your eyes, and the way you were behaving and-…"

"And you told Ron?" Hermione cut in.

"Well yeah… sorry…"

"Why did you do that?" Hermione asked, not angry, but not pleased either. "You should have told _me _what you thought, rather then Ron."

"Yes I know, I'm sorry, it's just that he kept going on about you, he thought you were doing all kinds of weird stuff behind his back, so I tried to calm him down by saying you were probably just in love or something…"

"Well that worked!" Hermione sniggered but with a hint of bitterness. "I think you made him _more_ determined."

"Yeah… sorry…"

"Oh well…" Hermione sighed. "It's not your fault. Anyway, I'm going to bed now. I'll see you tomorrow."

So they both said goodnight, and within half an hour, Hermione was sound asleep.

A few days passed, and the day of the Quidditch match finally arrived. Hermione was thankful for this distraction. Partly because it would keep Ron off her back, at least for the day. Especially if Gryffindor won, because then he'd be celebrating all day.

Hermione and Draco had arranged to meet in the evening. The day before, Hermione had been working on her special means of communication. When Draco had suggested the notes with code on them, she had instantly remembered the coins she had made for the DA members last year. These coins would once again be perfect, but while she was at it, Hermione had decided to alter the idea a little bit. It had been a more complicated job this time, but she always liked a good challenge. When she had finished, she'd eyed her handy work.

'Draco will be impressed.' She had thought, feeling a little well deserved pride.

Ron was of course so nervous the morning of the match, that he could hardly even eat breakfast. Even Lavender's ongoing flirtatious behaviour didn't cheer him up. Hermione was rather disgusted by the way Ron always got such an ego boost from Lavender's admiration. She knew he didn't fancy Lavender, but he still didn't seem to mind the attention. Hermione felt sorry for Lavender because Ron kept giving her false hope by responding to her rather than rejecting her.

So that morning, the match began, and to everyone's surprise, Ron did great. At first both Ron and Hermione thought it was due to the Felix Felicis that Harry had given him, but after winning the match, partly thanks to Ron, Harry admitted that he had only pretended to give him the potion, and that Ron had done it all on his own. Ron of course immediately got angry at Hermione for having said that the potion was why he had saved all the goals. It was completely unfair, and Hermione was furious.

'Well, I'm just glad Gryffindor won.' Hermione thought angrily as she walked up to the castle alone. 'Ron will definitely not be following me tonight. He'll be too busy bragging about his performance.' She arrived in the Gryffindor common room after Ron. Harry wasn't there yet, but the celebration party was already going strong. She scanned the room looking for a friendly face. Slowly her eyes went from left to right, until they suddenly stopped on a corner of the room. 'Why that vile little snake!' She thought. 'He's snogging Lavender Brown! He doesn't even really like her!' But suddenly she recognised the opportunity in all this.

'I need to convince Ron I don't have a boyfriend, right?' She thought. Her mind raced as she thought of what to do. Then suddenly she heard people calling Harry's name. She looked around and spotted him near the portrait hole. Apparently he'd just come in.

'Perfect.' She thought. She waited for a good moment, put on a distraught face, and then walked straight towards the portrait hole. She climbed out, and went into the nearest empty classroom.

'I'm pretty sure he saw me leave…' She thought, sitting down on the teachers desk and conjuring a flock of yellow birds for no particular reason. 'Please take the bait!'

Then the door opened, and Harry stepped inside. "Hermione?" He said.

'Good!' Thought Hermione. 'Now I just need to make him think I'm jealous of Lavender.'

"Oh, hello, Harry," she said, trying to sound upset. "I was just practising."

"Yeah… they're… er…. Really good…" Said Harry, looking at the birds.

"Ron seems to be enjoying the celebrations." Hermione said, pleased with the way her voice came out in an unnatural squeak.

"Er… does he?" Harry said.

"Don't pretend you didn't see him," Hermione said. "He wasn't exactly hiding it, was-"

She was interrupted by the door bursting open. It was Ron, laughing and pulling Lavender in behind him. This was an unexpected turn of events, but Hermione immediately knew that the situation couldn't have been more ideal. The plan had been to make Harry think she was jealous. She had hoped that Harry would then proceed to tell Ron about it. Once Ron knew that Hermione was jealous of Lavender, he would realise that she was in love with him, and therefore could not possibly have a boyfriend. The fact that Ron had just walked in made her scheme even easier. She could just bypass Harry and get the info straight to Ron. Unfortunately Ron was a little dense by nature, so she'd have to be more obvious to get the jealousy across.

Ron spotted them.

"Oh…" He said. Then Lavender saw them too. "Oops!" She said, and backed out of the room, closing the door behind her. There was a moment of silence. Then Ron spoke:

"Hi Harry! Wondered where you'd got to!"

Hermione got off the desk, the birds still flying around her head.

"You shouldn't leave Lavender waiting outside." She said softly, managing to get her eyes to water. "She'll wonder where you've gone." She slowly headed for the door. 'And now for the grand finale…' she thought.

She turned on her heel, and pointed her wand at Ron. "Oppugno!" She shouted. Her flock of birds sped towards Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at him.

"Gerremoffme!" He yelled, but Hermione wrenched open the door, stepped through, squeezed out a loud sob and slammed the door behind her as hard as she could. She then went straight for her room, trying to keep a straight face. Once she got there she dropped herself on the bed and laughed. She knew that what she'd just done was kind of mean, but it was also pretty funny.

'Besides,' She thought. 'he deserved it, taking advantage of Lavender like that. Let's just hope it works. I'll be glad to get rid of him…'

* * *


	12. Pale light and burning darkness

**_Note from Snitch:_ Take your comment as a challenge… how childish… Still, this chapter has become longer than I had expected :-). It will tell us more about Draco. Most of the story up to now was from Hermione's point of view, but the story of Draco is at least as interesting to tell. Things may not be easy for Hermione, but Draco isn't having a fun time himself either. A lot is asked of him and he cannot live up to all of it at the same time. How does he handle this problem? By the way, thanks for all of your comments, and 'one of the four', I think you need an account yourself to be alerted when new chapters are put online (I assume you don't have one, seeing as you posted anonymously), but I'm not really sure… **

**  
Chapter 12  
Pale light and burning darkness**

Draco walked down many halls, his footsteps echoing on the stone out of which they were made. He felt watched by the suits of armour which lined the path he was walking now. Their heads seemed to turn, following his movements after he had past them. As though they were watching where he was going and would open their visors as soon as he would not be able to see them anymore, to start whispering in metal tones about what he was going to do. What he would be working on for yet another evening. 'I must be feeling guilty', he thought, 'feeling so watched'. He knew he was. Feeling guilty. At first these trips had made him proud, he felt as though he finally had the chance to prove what he was really worth. He had been pleased with the confidence that had been placed in him, placed by the one who's confidence was worth more than that of anyone. Now he doubted. Was the confidence of him worth more than that of Hermione? She had given it to him more lightly, and despite all that Draco had done to her and her friends, so its worth would seem less. And it felt different…

Both sorts of confidence filled him with warmth and made him glow, but the confidence of Hermione felt like pale rays of sunlight in spring, bringing warmth to the still cold ground. That of _him_, it burned, its flames licked Draco's insides. It put a different light on things and the heat it produced urged him forward, made him hurry with his task. But Draco felt like it ate him too, hollowing him in a place of which he couldn't quite tell where it was. The hole made him shudder.

"Are you cold, dear?", a plump woman with red cheeks asked Draco from out of her painting. Draco jumped, expecting a group of suits of amour had silently crept up behind him. When instead of cold metal axes a fat woman in a yellow dress met his eyes, he just grumbled and continued down his path. "No need to get all sulky!" she called after him, as Draco walked off with big paces.

Draco was glad when he could close the door of the Room of Requirement behind him and no more prying eyes would be there to annoy him. The sight of his project made him relax. The forms of the big cabinet were very familiar to him, due to the long hours he had spent working on it. It was made of shining black wood, decorated with golden accents. It was beautiful and would not have been out of place in his own room at home, Draco thought, except for the fact that every piece of clothing he would put in it would disappear: it was a Vanishing Cabinet. At least, every thing you put in it was _supposed_ to disappear; at the moment the cabinet wasn't working properly. All the time he had spent here, he had tried to make the chocolate frog he had put in the cabinet as a testing object, vanish. Uncountable amounts of spells Draco had tried, but the frog still hadn't made his way out of Hogwarts and into the other Vanishing Cabinet in Knockturn Alley. Because the cabinet, though it's name made you suspect otherwise, did not make things vanish but only transported them from one cabinet to another. So far, Draco had only managed to make several legs of the frog disappear and those had even returned after some time. Lately, the frog had turned to flickering, even with the door of the cabinet opened (when the door was opened, nothing was supposed to happen). Draco was now trying to make the invisible moments of the frog longer and the visible moments shorter. And by that eventually making the latter disappear. It would be rather embarrassing if the people sent through from Knockturn Alley would flicker. Draco shortly laughed as he thought of Crabbe's father flickering in the cabinet, but his laughter quickly died away. The Death Eaters would be angry with him, so angry, and he could not even imagine in what way the Dark Lord would react if something went wrong. Hastily Draco unpocketed his wand and started working. He still had quite some time he could spent here, his meeting with Hermione would not take place until nine o'clock. In the forest classroom of Firenze, so they would be able lay down on the comfortably soft ground. The thought of this made Draco feel happy again. He imagined how beautifully Hermione's hair would melt with the brown tree barks. The ceiling of the room was bewitched to show the night's sky, so together they would look up at the starry sky, the stars making Hermione's skin glow and making the freckles on her nose stand out even more…-

"Draco…", a low voice said, and Draco jumped for the second time that evening, yet this time he didn't look into a plump face with red cheeks, but a pale one, enclosed by greasy, dark hair: the one of his Potions teacher.

"Finally I find you alone so I can speak to you. It would almost seem like you have been… _avoiding _me," Snape said. Draco didn't respond. He had indeed been avoiding Snape, hurrying away after Potions and not meeting his gaze. Since the fight with Ron, Draco and Hermione had the feeling Snape knew more about what they thought about each other than they wanted anyone to know...

"At least I find you working here, as you should be. Because your mission is more important than anything. You do still realize that, don't you?" Snape continued and he grabbed Draco at the shoulder, turning him so that they looked each other in the face.

"I was under the impression, that you had taken more interest in some… _other_ _things_ lately." Snape's smooth tone was turning nastier and Draco felt heat rising up to his face. Then he felt like Snape looked through his eyes straight into his head, as though he was looking into a microscope studying Draco's mind. Yet, Draco immediately closed his eyes and focused, emptying his mind, so that all that Snape could see was grey mist which steamed up the glasses of his microscope. Draco felt that Snape could not penetrate the fog and that he abandoned the attempt. Draco could not help but show a little triumphant smile at that moment, but this made Snape turn red.

"Fine!", Snape spat out, "Don't show me, I don't have to see more! What my eyes have seen before is enough! Don't think that you can keep it from me, both you and that filthy mudblood, this _thing _that you've got going on!" Then Snape's tone turned to menacing hissing. "How can you mix with _her_ sort, with _her_, of all people! A muggleborn pedant! Imagine what your father would say of this if he would be here to hear it!"

"Don't get my parents into this!" The colour drained of Draco's face as he imagined how his father would look if he knew about Hermione.

"No, you wouldn't want them to hear, would you. Imagine what would happen if they would tell _him_… how a son of a pureblood family was messing around with a mudblood while he should really be working on his task."

"You-… you wouldn't…" Draco stuttered.

"I wouldn't tell?" Something glittered in Snape's eyes. "Who knows? You don't." He laughed for a moment, but then his face turned stern again an he squeezed Draco's face with his hand. "She is not only a danger and a disgrace to yourself Draco, but more importantly, a danger to your task! Her influence on you will make the task even more difficult to complete! And I don't even want to _think_ about what will happen if she finds out about your mission!" Draco shrunk in his grasp.

"_No_… You have not…" Snape stared at him in disbelief. "You stupid boy! How can you have been so foolish!" Great unease filled Snape now that he realized how much the mission was in danger and that he was responsible for all of it, the responsibility that had been laid upon him by making the Unbreakable Vow with Draco's mother.

"Can't you see the danger you have brought upon us both? You risk both of our lives for that Granger girl! Don't allow yourself to be ruled by teenage hormones like that, there are much larger things at stake here!"

Then Snape's tone became determined. "You will break up with her. After that, I will take care of her so that she will not endanger the mission any further-"

"No," Draco said, for the first time with his voice clear with anger and not stuttering, "you will not do anything to her!" This reaction unpleasantly surprised Snape. "Don't be so-"

"Yes I will be! And you will stay off her or I'll… I'll shout it out in the Great Hall, I'll tell everyone about the task!" Draco said, trembling.

This time it was Snape's turn to have his face drained of all colour. "You wouldn't… You would die!" Snape said, sounding deeply shocked.

"And then so would you," Draco said, "you vowed to help me, and an Unbreakable Vow is not to be broken. So _don't_ tell! To no one!"

Snape was at a loss for words now the control of the situation had been robbed out of his hands so violently. He opened his mouth, but there were no words to express his exasperation, nor were there any to refute what Draco had said. Hissing with anger, Snape left the Room, slamming the door behind him.

Draco fell down to the ground, dropping his wand. Throughout the whole conversation, all his muscles had been totally tensed and the slamming of the door had been the sign for them to stop the hard work. Draco lay on the ground, his body hurting and his chest moving up and down rapidly, as if he had just run a marathon. He felt exhausted and drained. Talking to Snape, battling with him, was also a battle with himself. And his father. And the Dark Lord… Before this year, life had been so easy, it had been clear on who's side he was. But now… the two sides were constantly fighting each other inside him. As he defended one side of himself, he damaged the other in the attempt: he felt like he was destroying himself from within. He loved both sides as much as he hated them, deciding to take one away would leave him as a different person. But the dark side… It loomed over him, like oncoming night. And yet not like night. A night without stars perhaps, in which the darkness itself burned instead of the constellations. A fire which consumed light instead of creating it…

Draco's thoughts took him back in time, to a warm evening last summer. Through a large window of leaded glass the last rays of golden red sunlight entered the room. They illuminated many faces, all belonging to men and women in dark robes, and fell on the back of the man sitting at the head of the long table so that his silhouette was crowned with gold, making him look even more terrifying. His slanted eyes glowed like red coals and seemed to miss not a single detail of what was going on in the room.

"Welcome my Death Eaters." The words slithered out of the mouth under those eyes, "welcome, those who have remained out of the hands of the enemy. For several have been taken. They proved to be… _disappointing_, and failed me." Fear flickered in the eyes of the Death Eaters who were there, fear that they would fail some day.

"We will try to retrieve them, nonetheless. Still, this will take time. They will not be with us for a long time to come", Voldemort continued as his eyes slid over the empty chairs.

"However, as you can see, tonight one of the places of our missing Death Eaters has already been filled again. Draco…" Draco's first reflex had been to cast his eyes down, but he forced his chin up and looked the Dark Lord into the eyes. He was by far the youngest in the room, but did not want to show it.

"Already showing the same pride as his father. Yes, this is Lucius' son, bearing quite a resemblance to him, as you can see. I wonder whether this is true for his inner nature as well." Voldemort looked at him in an intrigued way, as though studying an interesting creature he had not seen before.

"Well, we shall soon know. I have asked Draco to join us with a reason." Draco could feel his body shudder as Voldemort looked at him, looking into him as he sometimes felt Snape do. He knew Snape's eyes were now on him too, as those of every person in the room. Though this kind of frightened him in one way, the importance of it made him glow.

"His father could not do what I asked of him. He failed me, not only in not managing to complete his mission, but getting himself caught as well. It seems as though the Malfoy family is not of much use to me anymore. And useless things I do not keep," Voldemort said and Draco's insides cringed.

"Luckily, the son of the family has a chance to make things up. Though young he might be, he is in a convenient position: at Hogwarts for a whole year with much time on his hands in which he can do things without being watched closely. A whole year, near to one of those who made the mission to retrieve the prophecy fail. The one who even thwarted me personally…" For a moment, the constant superiority of Voldemort swayed a little, but quickly, he continued.

"Dumbledore is, after all this time, still a thorn in my sight. He has to be removed. This is a thing which many have tried to accomplish, but as we know, none have succeeded in doing it. This time, we will attack him not from the outside, but from inside his fortress, from Hogwarts itself. He will finally experience the mortality he says he doesn't fear. Finally, he will die." Voldemort's lips curled into a short smile.

"This is your chance Draco, the chance to regain the honour of the Malfoy family. Will you take it? Will you do what I need of you?" The silence in the room was complete as all stared at Draco, waiting for his answer.

"Yes," Draco had said. "_Yes_…"

"Yes…" Draco repeated whispering, but now he found himself staring at the Vanishing Cabinet as he opened his eyes. "Yes!" he yelled angrily and he kicked the Cabinet. A sharp pain cut through his foot and the door of the Cabinet flew open. The frog inside faced him, still flickering. Draco's eyes prickled. _I'll never manage to fix it… I'll never manage to finish the task… And if I fail… then… he'll kill me. He'll kill me and my parents…_ Tears now streamed down his face and his whole body was shaking. He had to get up… get out of here… He had to keep thoughts like this out. Draco scrambled to his feet, falling down again at his first try, and got to the door. After that he ran down the halls, to Firenze's classroom where Hermione would be waiting for him. Only she could help him. Only she could chase the burning darkness that was eating him away. Out of breath he flung the door of the classroom open. Hermione stood on the grass in the room, the starlight making her skin glow as he had imagined and the mere sight of this comforted him at once. Draco let himself fall into her arms and embraced all of her light.


	13. SinnaDemon

**_Snitch: Very long time no see! And rather cruel of me to leave Draco suffering like that for all that time. So now, perhaps finally some relief for him, or at least some other suffering so that he won't get too bored! laughs sadistically _**

_Chapter thirteen_

**- SinnaDemon - **

Hermione sat down on the classroom floor and she felt the coldness of the slightly moist grass invade the fabric of her robe. She sighed and lowered her body further until her head lay on the floor and she stared at some stones and tree trunks through woods of grass blades. Chill crept into her cheek, but she didn't move.

_Why was he late…_ The key with this classroom and a point in time some thirty minutes ago on it was weighing down her pocket. She'd already checked it five times, so she'd forbidden herself to look again to check once more that Draco really was late for their appointment.

She felt bad for feeling bad as soon as Draco was half an hour late, for not being able to endure the silence in her head. Well, it was not silence, exactly, it never was silent in _her_ head, but it was about the thoughts that came up when she was not busy doing her homework, trying to cover up her tracks or talking to other people. When there was nothing to do, when all input from outside vanished, all sorts of unpleasant worries and uneasiness filled the vacancies in her head.

She could still see the rocks, bark and green around her perfectly, but at the same time this real image seemed invaded by so many eyes, all staring at her, distrusting, angry, reproaching. Ron's blue wide eyes followed her incessantly, his sister's were narrowed and seemed to condone every little move she made, Harry's green eyes looked so trusting and accepting that perhaps those were the worst in making her feel guilty. And then there were Snape's eyes, always trying to feel into the back of her head to things she so desperately tried to keep a secret. When she was not in a Defense against the Dark Arts class in the same room with him, when he would be lurking by her desk all the time so that she couldn't even take proper notes anymore, she still felt his gaze pierce the thick stone walls right into her skull.

Annoyed, Hermione scrambled up. _Stop feeling so guilty, come on, you've been over this a million times_, she berated herself. She started pacing up and the down the little hill on which she had lain and vigorously brushed the grass blades and grains of earth off her robe. Then she thought she heard something, was someone in the hallway? Immediately she stood still to listen and wiped the dirt off the cheek which had lain on the ground with her sleeve. She heard the rhythm of the footsteps, it was irregular, and quick and loud, not the almost floating sound of a swishing cloak punctured by light, well-measured footsteps she had been waiting for. Then the door bashed open.

Draco was in the door opening, sickly white. Blond strands of hair stuck on his forehead, that was shiny with sweat. His eyes stared almost bewildered into the classroom but closed with what seemed great relief as soon as they saw Hermione. Without closing the door behind him, Draco stumbled into the room and let himself fall into her arms. They both tightly locked their arms around each other, so tight that Draco's rapidly moving chest barely had the space to allow new gulps of air in. Hermione pressed his head against hers so that his boiling cheek touched her cold one, and she gently caressed his moist hair. Slowly, their breathing synchronised until their chests moved up and down simultaneously and their hands slowly dared to let go of their tight grip and eventually slid down the other's back until they rested on each other's hips. Hermione turned her head and softly placed a kiss on Draco's cheek. Then she laid her head on his chest. All seemed still and peaceful now. Finally Draco spoke.

"We'd better close the door," he said quietly. His voice sounded a little hoarse. Hermione wondered why it did so, as she had wondered about his lateness and the state in which he had entered, but she was reluctant to speak and end the moment. Draco waited just a little longer and then shut the door with a very soft thud.

"So," he said when he sat down.

"_So_," Hermione echoed and mimicked his action, flopping down beside him. Draco turned his head and smiled.

"Soooo," he said with his smile widening.

"Soooooooo," Hermione said with a slightly teasing tone and a small chuckle. Draco laughed and Hermione followed. She bended towards him and pretended to want to kiss him, but when Draco leaned in, she suddenly pulled back and looked at him with a defiant grin. For a short moment, there was a mix of surprise and confusion that arched his eyebrows in a way that made him look so cute that Hermione emitted an endeared giggle. Draco soon recovered, however, and pinched Hermione in her waist

"Ah!" she squeaked and she doubled up with her hands folded over her stomach to protect it from further pinching. Draco seized his chance and pushed her down on the grass and hunched over her to kiss her, but then she rolled over and pulled him along with her. She clambered on top of his stomach when he rolled down on his back and pressed his hands down on the ground using hers.

"Ha!" she said triumphantly. "I didn't take those self defence courses for nothing!" She giggled under her breath. Draco wriggled for another moment but then gave in. He mixed a smile with a mocking pout.

"All right, I give in," he said. Hermione's grin widened even further.

"As if you had a choice," she said. She released his hands, lifted her right leg and sat down beside him contently. Draco sat up straight and folded his hand into hers. Their fingers tapped each other one by one and stroked the other's palm.

"You were late," Hermione said finally. Draco did not want to change the atmosphere by speaking of what had happened.

"How can I make it up to you?" he asked her cheerfully.

Hermione didn't want to harp on about where he had been, because she probably didn't _really _want to know and much preferred playing this little game, so she crossed her legs and bit her lip playfully. "Eeerm…"

"I have an idea," Draco said, and he took out his wand. He waved it and softly muttered a spell Hermione didn't recognize.

"A toast to you being an invincible _femme fatale_," Draco said with an overdone French accent on the last two words, and a slender bottle filled with a liquid with a golden sparkle appeared at the tip of his wand. With two taps on the ground, he conjured matching glasses into which he poured some of the liquid. He offered Hermione one of the glasses and then caused a short clear ring when he softly bumped his own glass onto hers.

"_Santé_!" he said and drained his glass at once. Hesitatingly, Hermione brought the glass to her lips. The smell of hot, sweet cinnamon filled her nostrils. She usually distrusted strong liquor, but this did seem tempting… She tilted the glass, and as soon as the liquid reached her mouth, a warm tingle invaded her lips. She opened her mouth a bit to let in some fluid. Warmth filled her throat and then radiated to her entire head. She closed her eyes and made a soft approving sound. Draco smiled without sound and refilled both their glasses when Hermione had finished hers with one big swig.

"I think I quite like this…" Hermione said with a voice that sounded a little girly, and she sipped the second glass. Then she drained it and giggled, looking at Draco's full glass. "Ha, I beat you!"

She grabbed the bottle and poured the liquid in her empty glass, slopping over some of it, but she didn't really care. Draco looked amused and swallowed his drink with a few gulps and was in the process of putting his glass down on the grass when Hermione already tilted the bottle above it, spilling sweet cinnamon over his right hand and partially to its intended destination. It dripped down bottle, onto her robe and into her right sleeve. Giggling again, she wiped the fabric (only spreading out the stain) and brought her right wrist to her mouth, bringing some of the liquor to where it was supposed to go instead of down her arm.

"That had best not go alone…" she said with a laugh, addressing the few drops she had just taken in, and she emptied her third glass. "Beat you again!" she said with a triumphant grin.

"Oh, really?" Draco said teasingly, and he drank two glasses in quick succession, looking as defiant as if he had just nicked Neville's Remembrall and stood facing Harry. Hermione made a mocking-indignant sound and snatched the bottle. For a short moment she considered the glass, but then changed her mind and poured the bottle's contents straight into her mouth instead, at first determined, but after a few gulps unable to stop herself from laughing. Draco used the moment to steal back the bottle. He held it in front of her, swinging it just out of reach when Hermione reached out. Hermione repeatedly tried to lay hands on it, but everything around her had in quite a short time grown rather too hazy and wobbly to allow her to succeed. Draco and the bottle slid in and out of focus (and everything else was a more or less constant mossy blur). Draco repeated the little joke over and over again, not growing tired of it while Hermione's flush became ever redder.

Teasingly, Draco finally brought the bottle to his lips and took a little sip. "Mmm… good, isn't it?"

He drank some more, closing his eyes as if he were enjoying it more than anything he had ever drunk (though of course, seeing Hermione look like that was a hundred times better than this CinnaDemon). This was enough: Hermione lunged out at Draco, which was a lot easier than at the bottle, seeing as Draco was considerably larger. Draco tried to hold on to the bottle with his other hand as well, as he was in the process of having another swig, but Hermione landed on his chest, and with slopping some more drink on the collar of his robe, the bottle rolled out of his hand, down the mossy slope until it came to halt against the wooden door with loud clank. A wet trail with a faint golden glow which mirrored the dark surroundings marked the path it had travelled.

"Fine then," Hermione said, and she planted her elbow next to Draco's face on the ground, and lowered her head above Draco's. "I think there's a little left here anyway…"

Her nose brushed against his, and Draco's own smell was pleasantly mixed with that of cinnamon and sugar, and then her lips touched Draco's moist ones. Slowly, she licked off the CinnaDemon. Draco returned her kiss, brushing a trailing lock of brown hair out of their faces and putting it behind her ear. Now its curly end tickled his jaw instead of his cheek. Subtly, not interrupting the kiss, he steered her over until they both lay on their sides.

Hermione's head lay on her folded left arm and with her other hand, she stroked Draco's arm, which rested on her hip. She followed the line of his arm, up his forearm, past his elbow, to his upper arm. Draco's sleeve rolled up as it was tugged along by her hand. She caressed the muscles enclosed by the soft, warm skin. Then her lips slid off his and trailed down his neck, until they reached the dimple between his collarbones. Hermione burrowed her head under his chin, digging her nose into his skin, wanting to breath in his scent as deep as she could. The alcohol seemed to make the things she focused on much more intense. From the black fabric of his collar issued the slightly soapy and yet dusty smell of expensive, old robes that were freshly laundered every day, mixed with that of sugary cinnamon, and a salty undertone of dried sweat. The saline scent radiated from his skin as well, yet there it seemed warmer, more fluid, more mixed with the odours surrounding it, the ones that Hermione would recognize as his without doubt in pitch-darkness any time. They were so strongly bound to Draco, that Hermione felt she could almost _smell _the white hue of skin that only he had. She couldn't tell exactly what these scents were, perhaps a mixture of the smell of expensive fabrics, exclusive soaps, had impregnated his skin for life. No, it was not as lifeless a smell as that… It was Draco, she finally contented herself. Even the sweat was Draco. There was no repulsion in that at all, rather attraction: it radiated his warmth, his life. She rubbed her cheek against his chest, wanting to carry his scent within her own skin.

She moved her hand past his collar onto his shoulder, over his back, over his chest... Restlessness seemed to have crept into her, and soon it infected Draco as well, and they merged into a kiss, not kiss consisting of lips softly touching each other, but a kiss as if they could drink each other, take in a bit of the other at each touch of their lips, their tongues, and suddenly it seemed as though nothing mattered more than quenching their thirst. The thirst spread to their hands, their fingers, their fingertips, which impatiently searched the robes of the other, the shapes, the waist, the slopes, the warmth underneath it… The border between their two bodies faded, until there was a big blur of lips, fingers and skin in which it was both impossible and insignificant to tell which belonged to who. Their intertwined bodies rolled over the grass, they themselves unaware of that fact, because they seemed to be in a whirlpool, spinning around and drawn down, ever closer together, ever deeper. The pull was so strong that it was almost unbearable, but it was inescapable, drowning them in each other, in CinnaDemon…

And then suddenly an arm broke loose form the embrace, burning, returning back to its owner. Draco's teeth slid past Hermione's lip as he turned away his head and issued a yell. He bolted upright and clutched his left forearm, looking as if someone had just touched it with a white-hot poker. Shrieking, Hermione shot up and grabbed Draco's right hand with her own. His left sleeve was half up his forearm and Hermione saw a snake in the darkest black etched in Draco's skin, twisting, looking as though it was hissing violently, as if it had just been pinched with that poker. Hermione recoiled and her hand fell of Draco's. Her eyes where big with terror when she looked at Draco, who was even paler than when he had entered the room. His eyes stared emptily at his spread out forearm, where the snake wriggled under his fingertips pressed deep into his skin. Then Draco's voice resounded through the room hoarsely.

"He's summoned me."


	14. To Pieces

_Snitch:** Hello, dear all. Renewed inspiration here, look, another chapter! It's very short, I know, but it just feels like the end of chapter at the end. I'm glad to see some new people have joined in on reading, by the way. I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review, thanks!**_

_Chapter fourteen_

**To pieces**

The words Draco had just spoken seemed to echo inside his head. All he could see were the wriggling black lines on his forearm, everything else seemed to swim around him. He was only vaguely aware of Hermione next to him, of her hand sliding of his. The head of the snake seemed to be staring directly at him, its soundless angry hisses personally directed towards him. For a moment, Draco forgot that he was looking at the Dark Mark on his forearm, for the slanted snake's eyes resembled those other eyes so closely: the way they were tilted so that they always looked aggressive, their slits for pupils, the way their redness darkened when they were displeased…Whether the Voldemort's eyes would go black like the snake's if He were extremely angry, Draco didn't know; he would never look at the Dark Lord directly when He was raging, Draco knew better than that. Draco gasped for air the moment he thought that _His_ ink-black eyes full of fury were directed towards him, that the Dark Lord like a Basilisk had given him a death glare for failing his task. Not a death glare that would kill him instantly, no, He was not as merciful as that; a glare that meant that he would die after having received adequate punishment for failing his master, and adequate was never on the light side… Not until he heard Hermione's voice, did Draco realise that he was merely staring at his arm instead of at the Dark Lord.

"My god - he's calling you?"

Hermione's voice was lower than Draco had ever heard it. He turned his head and saw Hermione on the ground, almost a yard away, with a knee in front of her and supported by her hands behind her, looking as if ready to defend herself or run away, as if there were some sort of monster in front of her. He saw her shrink away for a split second when he turned to face her. Her chest moved up and down rapidly, yet her breathing was almost inaudible. Then in a throaty whisper she continued, her speech accelerating with every word.

"What on earth happened tonight Draco? What's going on? Why were you late, running in here as if the devil himself were chasing you – why were you as white as a ghost and all covered in sweat?! What happened?" – her whisper turned into a hoarse yell during those last two words. "For God's sake, what happened?! Tell me! _Tell me!_" Her voice cracked and the look in her eyes was somewhat bewildered.

Draco opened his mouth, but it seemed to dry to speak, and he swallowed a few times.

"I… -", he started, and he swallowed again.

"I – it –" Hermione's stare was terrifying - he cleared his throat, "Tonight I…" Hermione's glance was unbearable, and he looked to the ground.

"I have to go," he said in a very small voice. He stood up shakily.

"No, _no_!" Hermione said, and she got up as well, her body shaking with rage rather than nervousness. "Tell me what the hell is going on!"

Draco turned away from her and walked towards the door, saying nothing. He reached inside his robe for his wand, he would need to Apparate to the Dark Lord as soon as possible.

"NO! You have to tell me – Draco, you can't do magic like this, you're drunk! You can't Apparate, you'll Splinch yourself to pieces!"

Draco opened the door (the almost empty bottle gave sad clank as the door hit it, as if to remind them of how differently the evening had started), and after a last moment of hesitation, walked through it.

"Draco!" Hermione's voice echoed behind him, the second syllable both a syllable and a sob at the same time. The sound of a bottle being thrown onto a door and breaking into a hundred pieces scattering over the floor resounded angrily through the corridor. There was an odd twitch in Draco's stomach. He fastened his pace.


	15. Sobering up

_Chapter fifteen_

**Sobering up**

Draco hurried down the corridor, and down another one, and another, past the enormous doors that formed the entrance to Hogwarts – he would be stupid to try and use those – and down several flights of stairs, until he had reached the dungeons far down in the castle. His heartbeat grew even faster than it had already been when he stopped before the door of the office of his Potions teacher and held still for a moment. Then he knocked.

He heard Snape make some irritated noises and rumble around with some papers and glass objects before he opened the door to a slit and appeared in the opening, still half-concealed behind the door. His greasy hair looked a little messed up, as if he had quite literally sat with his hands in his hair. His robes were lopsided, probably due to his partially unbuttoned collar. He looked as if he had not been happy before Draco had turned up at his office and this event did not seem to improve his mood. His voice sounded nothing short of reproachful when he acknowledged Draco's presence.

"Mister Malfoy," he said very curtly. Before Snape could say anything more, Draco held out his left forearm and dragged up his sleeve to reveal the burning Dark Mark. Snape closed his slightly opened mouth which had been about to speak and looked down at Draco's forearm. Involuntarily, Snape's hand twitched towards his own forearm, but of course, he had not been summoned, there was no way of not noticing being summoned. He looked up at Draco. The boy was a mess, looking sad, fearful and angry at the same time, his emotions pointing in all possible directions. And he was looking rather drunk, and sweaty and dishevelled too, his robes were half open, what on earth had the boy been doing. Off to the Dark Lord in this state, on his own, it would be disaster. Snape would join him, even though he hadn't been summoned, and try to do some damage control. Snape backed away from the door opening and closed the door after letting Draco in.

Draco already stomped off to the enchanted bookcase that provided a secret way out of the castle, but Snape grabbed him at his shoulder.

"Draco, I do not know what you have been up to after our _encounter_ earlier – and do not worry, I will not inquire, there is no time for that now anyway – but I do know that you're a mess and that the Dark Lord will _not_ appreciate that, and that he will make you look and feel infinitely worse compared to how you are now. You will not go alone, I will accompany you."

"But He hasn't summoned you!"

"Draco, I am acting in your best interest –"

"Want to join me so you can let something slip about Hermione?" Draco said resentful. Then another thought arose in his head, and it filled him with both fear and anger. The alcohol released his tongue without another moment's hesitation. "Or have you already! Where have you been since our, what did you call it, _encounter_?!" He spit out the words with a trembling voice. "Have already told Him, ever trying to show Him what a super-spy you are, all knowing about everything that goes on in Hogwarts?? Is that why He's called me?! Well, then you've got another thing coming," he grabbed his wand, "I'll show you –"

"Don't be foolish!" Snape interrupted him, his wand in front of him before Draco ever had his out of his pocket. "_I have told him nothing_. But he will easily know from you, if he sees you enter like this, your mind as open and accessible as a…" Snape bit back the obscenity that had been about to cross his lips, Draco was only a boy after all. He gazed at Draco's half open robes. "Fix yourself," he said in an icy voice.

Draco lowered his hand form his pocket and flushed, and quickly adjusted his robe. While Snape was rummaging in his cupboards, Draco brushed stray hair out of his face and wiped the sweat of his forehead and cheeks. He readjusted his posture and tried to stand still and upright despite of how wobbly his surroundings were. What a moment to be drunk… He would have to be very careful in a moment, an outburst like that in front of the Dark Lord would mean, at the very least, severe punishment. Alcohol was dreadful for keeping things to yourself…

"Here, drink this," Snape said as he thrust a small bottle with an icy blue liquid into Draco's hands. Draco sniffed it – it smelled strongly of peppermint – and then drained the bottle. His head stung with instant coldness, as if he had eaten four cups of pumpkin ice cream at once. After the sting was gone, however, the dullness in his head lifted somewhat, and he felt kind of refreshed altogether, a little less sweaty. Snape taxed him once more from head to toe and decided that things were as passable as they would get, and that right now all they could do to further their case, was to hurry. He took the bottle from Draco, put it on his desk and then tapped four books in the bookcase at the far end of the room with his wand. When he stepped through it (the bookcase was no longer solid after tapping the books) to the tunnel leading to the borders of Hogwarts, Draco followed him.

In silence they marched down the tunnel, breathing in the cold, moist air, that smelled heavily of earth. Snape snorted shortly when his hooked nose caught a waft of sugary cinnamon. CinnaDemon, ever the drink at the Malfoy's if they wanted to forget about something. Only too often had he had way too much of that with Lucius after a failed operation. Like father, like son.

He wondered whether Draco had drunk an entire bottle by himself in the Room of Requirement, sitting propped up against that Vanishing Cabinet, whimpering about his project and his Mudblood girlfriend. Oh – now he thought of it – he probably drank it _with_ the Mudblood girlfriend. That would explain the state of the robe in which Draco had entered. It engrossed Snape to think of the Malfoy boy mixing with that pedant bitch, what a waste of pure wizard's blood, mixing in _that way_… ugh. And on top of that, the girl was unbearable. Perhaps she made proper potions, well, more than proper, he had to admit, but that little mouth of her never stopped moving, quoting her books incessantly, correcting him on every minor detail… And always with the best of manners, so that he couldn't very well have her scrub some cauldrons by hand for a few hours – just the work for such a Muggleborn – to force some quiet on her, and her wand and quill.

And now she was even interfering with his life beyond the classroom, not only nagging about in the Order, but also in a way he would never have seen coming. How unlikely, how unbelievable was this pairing. He'd always thought Draco was amusing himself with the Parkinson girl adequately. Perhaps he should have a word with her, try to arrange something… Maybe a few drops of this and that to help things along… Hermione did not seem to him like the kind of girl that would tolerate cheating, especially not on top of all the Dark Lord business, he could rub that in some more too. Yes, now there was a viable plan. His lips curled up contently.

Meanwhile, the end of the tunnel drew nearer. After another minute, Draco and Snape were standing in a circular room in which it was possible to Apparate, as it was just beyond the borders of Hogwarts. Snape got his wand out to depart to the Dark Lord, but Draco stopped him.

"Erm – professor?" he said hesitatingly. Snape turned to look at him. "Your robe," Draco said quietly, eyeing the unbuttoned collar. Snape felt the fastening of his clothing, and indeed, he was walking around in a half-undone robe. Draco thought he saw a flicker of colour on Snape's sallow cheeks. Did he feel caught, just as Draco had? How had Snape felt after their meeting in the Room of Requirement? Had Snape himself perhaps had some of that ice-blue stuff before he had let Draco into his office? Who knew what kind of drinks he kept in all those vials… Draco smirked, but then turned red. Thinking of Snape like that, it felt wrong and inappropriate. Things had been weird between them today, but Snape remained his senior and his teacher. And a friend of his father, he mustn't forget…

He looked around at Snape, who just finished fastening his robe with his face invisible behind the curtain of dark hair, and who seemed to have seen neither the smirk nor the redness. Relieved, Draco got out his wand. Snape did the same, and after one short glance, they both Disapparated.


	16. Undone

Note from Snitch: So, I gave in to a review and finished another chapter. Turns out I had most of it lying around anyway. Finishing it was hard though, I have a tendency to get myself horribly stuck in stories because I enjoy torturing my characters so much that I write myself into situations it's almost impossible to get out of. Of course, then I leave the story for a while, and then after a few months I think, hm, wouldn't it be nice to write another chapter and I get myself all inspired, and then I discover in what a horrible situation I'd actually left myself (or Draco, in this case ;-) ) and why I stopped writing that chapter :-P. So, as you will see, I write Draco and myself into a tighter corner than ever this chapter. I wonder how long it will take to get to chapter seventeen in this way ;-).

As always, please let me know what you think. **  
**

Chapter sixteen

**Undone**

The feeling of Apparating – Draco just couldn't get used to it. He always felt as though a giant landed on top of him as soon as he had thought of the location he wanted to go to, a giant which did not only squash his body and make any form of breathing impossible, but who also seemed to tug at both ends of his body, stretching him way further than seemed possible when you thought about it. Still every arrival, when the giant seemed to dissolve as suddenly as it had materialized, felt like a small miracle to Draco, as every time he would arrive in one piece, with undamaged lungs and still his usual eight foot and two inches long.

Even today, drunk as he was, he arrived unscathed. Snape and he had Apparated to an overgrown field. Weeds had long defeated whatever used to grow there, and apart from the trampled down circle they were standing on, they grew at least three feet high, preventing the circle from being seen by passer-by's. Snape and Draco were not alone, and addressed by the other person present.

"Snape!" Peter Pettigrew said, sounding nervous at this unexpected appearance. "He - the Dark Lord – he did not tell me you would be coming." His normal hand fumbled with his silver thumb, stroking it twitchingly. Snape merely glared at Pettigrew, who in response jerked and quickly averted his eyes.

"Well, th-then we had better go. Late already, very late. He will not be pleased," Pettigrew muttered, as much to himself as to anybody else.

He scurried in between Draco and Snape and took out his wand. He shot one glance up at Draco, gee, the boy looked wasted, all pale and hazy eyed. Snape didn't look at that well too, now that he thought of it. He wondered what was going on, but it was not as if anyone was going to tell _him_. No, all he was good for was fetching people here to get them to some secret location of the Dark Lord, like some bell-boy. Mumbling complaints under his breath, he Apparated away, taking Draco and Snape with him at his sides.

They arrived in a dark hallway. It was paved with upturned and broken stones, which made you trip if you didn't watch out (Pettigrew rubbed the swelling on his forehead in remembrance). The walls had partially crumbled and revealed patches of starry sky and a half-moon. The latter was the only source of illumination, and gave the place a rather eerie, silvery glow in places, even though it was probably just some deserted ruin - remains of an ill-maintained medieval building or something, the kind that littered the English countryside.

Draco's breath was threatening to go out of control, now that they were here, the presence of the Dark Lord filling the air. He tried to force down the sharp intakes of air his body was demanding. The thumping in his chest was so intense, that he was sure that Snape would hear the racing pace of his heartbeats amongst the soft rustling of leafs outside. _Control yourself_, Draco could hear Snape say already. Draco tried to breath in and out slowly and consciously, forcing out images of Hermione and terrifying glances of snake-like eyes. Clear my mind, clear my mind, Draco repeated to himself, trying to imagine he was sitting across aunt Bellatrix at home, in one of his countless Occlumency practice sessions with her. This was what he had practiced for all that time,_this was it_. Clear, clear, clear –

"Draco," Snape beckoned from in front of Draco, sounding rather stern. Draco saw that Pettigrew was already hurrying along yards in front of them, heading towards a cracked stone arch at the end of the hallway. Draco took one last deep breath and followed. He walked side by side with Snape to the arch. He couldn't help but glance at Snape, but Snape's expression was unreadable. Not fearful, not angry, not uninterested – just completely neutral. Snape didn't look back.

Draco saw Pettigrew disappear behind the arc. "They're here, master," Draco faintly heard Pettigrew's voice say. Then that awful, high-pitched voice hit Draco, as clear as if it were uttered right next to his ear.

"They?" slithered Voldemort's voice. Draco heard Pettigrew scuffle over the stone floor nervously.

"Snape's also-" Pettigrew started,

"Snape?" Voldemort interrupted.

"Well – I went to get the boy and then there–" Pettigrew coughed a few times, as if his nerves had made him choke on the words.

"There was I also," Snape finished his sentence for him, as he stepped through the arch. His voice missed the disdain it usually had when he spoke to other people.

"When Draco stood on my doorstep because you, my Lord, had summoned him, I thought it would perhaps be useful for me to join him. As head of his House and the only one of sure allegiance to you in his vicinity at Hogwarts, I have been keeping an eye on him, and more importantly, an eye on his task. Things have not been entirely … _satisfactory_ lately and I hoped that I could be of more help to the boy – and above all to you ultimately, of course – by accompanying him here so that we might discuss his progress by the three of us."

"And since when do _you_ decide in which way you can best be of help to me? Are you suggesting your judgment capabilities surpass mine?" Voldemort didn't sound angry – vexed, more.

"Never would I dream of such a thing, my Lord," Snape said with a composed but humble voice. He kneeled and looked up – Voldemort was just a few yards in front of Snape, Draco concluded from the angle of Snape's gaze, with a strange, chilly feeling creeping up his spine.

"I merely attempt to serve you as best as I can, trying to think of little things I can do so that you only need to concern yourself with the bigger picture."

There was a silence. Draco imagined Voldemort eyes peering into Snape's head and hoped intensely that Snape was as good at Occlumency as was said and most of all, that Snape had decided to use that skill to conceal any thought concerning Hermione.

Voldemort did not utter another word to Snape that Draco could hear, but apparently Voldemort had signalled the end of their conversation, because Snape got up, nodded, and took a few steps backwards, out of sight for Draco. The empty arch now beckoned him.

"Yes, Draco." Voldemort said. Though the natural thing to do was to take a deep breath, all Draco could do was hold his breath while he walked through the arch and fell to his knees, his eyes on the ground all the time. "My Lord," he said hoarsely. He didn't dare to clear his throat. The silence rung like a beeping alarm bell in his ears.

"Look at me," Voldemort commanded. Full of dread Draco cast his eyes up and the instant they met Voldemort's, he had to exert all his power not to be pulled into the red pits smouldering between those slitted eyelids. Voldemort made a disdainful noise.

"How dare you show up to me drunk. I will not be shown such disrespect," Voldemort hissed. Draci felt as if he was slashed on his left side and he fell over, spread out on the floor.

"Perhaps this will teach you," Voldermort said harshly. "Though your father never seemed to learn. Does it run in families, trying to drown failures in alcohol? Or is it just the stupidity that passes from one generation to another?" A muscle in Draco's neck twitched, but he he was wise enough to keep his head down. He crawled back on his knees, hunching forward.

"Or can you tell me otherwise? Has the youngest Malfoy finally made some progress with his task?"

"Well, I - I tried to-"

"You_tried_?" Voldermort asked scathingly.

"I'm working on, on the..." Draco's voice trailed away as he looked up at Voldermort's face when he spoke.

"On the Cabinet, still? How hard can it be to fix a cupboard?"

Draco quickly cast down his eyes again. They prickled.

"And still you seem to think you have the time to spend evenings drinking, instead of devoting them to you task. Who knows how many things you are putting in front of your duties!"

Draco couldn't help himself.

The remark released all the things he so desperately wanted to keep deep down. No matter how hard he tried, he was filled head to toe with Hermione: in front of his eyes, in the farthest corner of his head, everywhere her face pushed away all other images. He clenched his fists so hard that little drops of blood littered the fingernails that dug into his skin.

"Well, how many?!" Voldemort's voice did not seem to tolerate another moment without reaction.

Draco felt strangely lightheaded and was for a moment unsure even where he was. Then his eyes found his master's face.

But all that he could see, were the two brown eyes that filled his head.


End file.
